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diff --git a/old/60813-0.txt b/old/60813-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 516076f..0000000 --- a/old/60813-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8033 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In France and -Belgium, by Horace Porter - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In France and Belgium - Or, Saving the Fortunes of the Trouvilles - -Author: Horace Porter - -Release Date: November 29, 2019 [EBook #60813] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS *** - - - - -Produced by Demian Katz, Craig Kirkwood, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Images -courtesy of the Digital Library@Villanova University -(http://digital.library.villanova.edu/)) - - - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - -Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. - - * * * * * - -[Illustration: FREEMAN GAVE A WARNING SHOUT: “DOWN WITH YOU, SHE’S -TRAILING HER ANCHOR!” _Page 15._ _The Aeroplane Scouts In France and -Belgium._] - - - - -Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In France and Belgium OR Saving the Fortunes -of the Trouvilles - - - By HORACE PORTER - - AUTHOR OF - “Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In Germany.” “Our Young - Aeroplane Scouts In Russia.” “Our Young - Aeroplane Scouts In Turkey.” - - [Illustration] - - A.L. BURT COMPANY - NEW YORK - - * * * * * - -Copyright, 1915 BY A. L. BURT COMPANY - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM - - * * * * * - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM. - - - - -CHAPTER I. THRILLING VOYAGE IN A SEA-PLANE. - - -It was a muggy night in Dover--not an unusual thing in Dover--but -nevertheless the wind had an extra whip in it and was lashing the -outside Channel into a state of wild waves. An acetylene flare revealed -several muffled figures flitting here and there on the harbor brink. -There was a glint from polished surface, a flash-like, downward rush -of a long, tapering hull, and a splash in the dark waters below. A -sea-plane had been deftly launched. Motors hummed, a wide wake streamed -away to the rear of the wonder craft, which, suddenly, as if by magic -drawn upward from the tide, joined the winds that sported aloft. - -Captain Leonidas Johnson, noted as an airman in the four quarters of -the globe, sat tight behind the rudder wheel, and back in the band-box -engine room was Josiah Freeman, one time of Boston, U. S. A. - -Two aboard were not of the regular crew. Behind the wind-screen were -Billy Barry and Henri Trouville, our Aviator Boys, bound for the coast -of France, and bound to get there. - -Ever higher and higher, the intrepid navigators sailed into a clearing -atmosphere, where the clouds were being gathered into a moonlight bath. -The 120’s were forcing a speed of something like a mile to the minute, -and doing it at 2000 feet above the sea level. - -Through Dover Straits the swift trend of the great mechanical bird was -toward the North Sea, the blurring high lights of Dover fading in the -distance rearward and Calais showing a glimmer on the distant right. - -Captain Johnson switched on the ghost light to get his bearings -from the facing dials, and speaking to the shadowy figures in the -observation seat indulged in a bit of humor by asking: - -“You young daredevils, how does this strike you?” - -An answering high note from Billy: - -“You’re doing bully, Captain, but mind your eye and don’t knock a hole -in Dunkirk by flying too low.” - -“Well, of all the nerve,” chuckled the veteran wheelman, “‘flying too -low,’ and the sky almost close enough to touch.” - -A pressure forward on the elevating lever shot the sea-plane downward, -and the turn again to level keel was made a scant five hundred feet -above the choppy surface of the Channel. - -“We’ll take to boating again at Dunkirk,” observed the captain, but the -observation was heard only by himself, for now the wind and the waves -and the motors and the straining of the aircraft combined to drown even -a voice like the captain’s. - -There was destined to be no landing that night at Dunkirk. An offshore -gale, not to be denied, suddenly swept the Channel with howling force. -Rising, dipping, twisting, the sea-plane dashed on in uncertain course, -and when at last it had outridden the storm, Ostend was in sight--the -Atlantic City of the Belgians. - -The stanch aircraft, with engines silenced, rocked now upon the heaving -tide. Its tanks were empty. Not a drop of petrol in them. Retreat was -impossible, and in the broad light of the new day there was no place of -concealment. - -While four shivering shapes shifted cramped positions and gratefully -welcomed the warming sun-rays, they were under survey of powerful -field-glasses in the hands of a gray-garbed sentry. - - - - -CHAPTER II. A LOOK BACKWARD. - - -After following Billy and Henri in their perilous and thrilling night -ride, it has occurred that they should have first been properly -introduced and their mission in the great war zone duly explained. -Only a few weeks preceding their first adventure, as described in the -initial chapter, they were giving flying exhibitions in Texas, U. S. A. - -“That’s a pair for you!” proudly remarked Colonel McCready to a little -group of soldiers and civilians intently looking skyward, marking the -swift and graceful approach through the sunlit air of a wide-winged -biplane, the very queen of the Flying Squadron. - -With whirring motor stilled, the great bird for a moment hovered over -the parade ground, then glided to the earth, ran for a short distance -along the ground and stopped a few feet from the admiring circle. - -“That’s a pair for you!” repeated Colonel McCready, as he reached for -the shoulders of the youth whose master hand had set the planes for the -exquisitely exact landing and gave a kindly nod to the young companion -of the pilot. - -“I’ll wager,” continued the colonel delightedly, “that it was a -painless cutting of Texas air, this flight; too fast to stick anywhere. -Fifty-five miles in sixty minutes, or better, I think, and just a -couple of kids--size them up, gentlemen--Mr. William Thomas Barry and -Mr. Henri Armond Trouville.” - -Billy Barry adroitly climbed out of the little cockpit behind the -rudder wheel and patiently submitted to the colonel’s hearty slaps on -the back. Billy never suffered from nerves--he never had any nerves, -only “nerve,” as his Uncle Jacob up in the land where the spruce -comes from used to say. Billy’s uncle furnished the seasoned wood for -aëroplane building, and Billy’s brother Joe was boss of the factory -where the flyers are made. Billy knew the business from the ground up, -and down, too, it might be added. - -And let it be known that Henri Trouville is also a boy of some parts -in the game of flying. He loved mechanics, trained right in the shops, -and even aspired to radiotelegraphy, map making aloft, and other fine -arts of the flying profession. Henri has nerves and also nerve. He -weighs fifty pounds less than Billy, but could put the latter to his -best scuffle in a wrestling match. Both of them hustled every waking -minute--the only difference being that pay days meant more to Billy -than they did to Henri. - -No brothers were ever more firmly knit than they--this hardy knot of -spruce from Maine, U. S. A., and this good young sprout from the lilies -of France. - - * * * * * - -There’s a pair for you! - -“Say, Colonel,” said Billy, with a fine attempt at salute, “if I didn’t -know the timber in those paddles I wouldn’t have felt so gay when we -hit the cross-currents back yonder. I----” - -“Yes, yes,” laughed the colonel, “you are always ready to offer a trade -argument when I want to show you off. Now you come out of your shell, -Henri, and tell us what you think of the new engine.” - -“There is sure some high power in that make, sir,” replied Henri. -“Never stops, either, until you make it.” - -“All you boys need,” broke in Major Packard, “is a polishing bit of -instruction in military reconnaissance, and you would be a handy aid -for the service.” - -“While I am only factory broke, Major,” modestly asserted Billy, “Henri -there can draw a pretty good map on the wing, if that counts for -anything, and do the radio reporting as good as the next. What a fellow -he is, too, with an engine; he can tell by the cough in three seconds -just where the trouble is. If I was going into the scout business, -believe me, I might be able to make a hit by dropping information slips -through the card chute.” - -The dark-eyed, slender Henri shook a finger at his talkative comrade. - -“Spare me, old boy, if you please,” he pleaded. “Gentlemen,” turning -to the others, who were watching the housing of the aëroplane, “this -bluffer wouldn’t even speak to me when the altitude meter, a little -while ago, registered 3,000 feet. Then he had a wheel in his hands; -down here he has it in his head!” - -“Bully for you, comrade,” cried Billy. “I couldn’t have come back that -neatly if I tried. But then, you know, I have to work to live, and you -only live to work.” - -With this happy exchange the boys moved double quick in the direction -of quarters and the mess table. - -Colonel McCready, with the others proceeding to leisurely follow the -eager food seekers, in his own peculiar style went on to say: - -“There’s a couple of youngsters who have been riding a buckboard -through some fifty miles of space, several thousand feet from nowhere, -at a clip that would razzle-dazzle an eagle, and, by my soul, they act -like they had just returned from a croquet tournament!” - -Our Aviator Boys had grown fearless as air riders. They had learned -just what to do in cases of emergency, in fact were trained to the -hour in cross-country flying. Rare opportunity, however, was soon to -present itself to give them a supreme test of courage and skill. - -Little they reckoned, this June evening down by the Alamo, what the -near future held in store for them. - - - - -CHAPTER III. FAREWELL TO THE FACTORY. - - -An archduke had been killed on Servian soil, and war had raised its -dreadful shadow over stricken Liège. The gray legions of the Kaiser -were worrying the throat of France. From the far-off valley of the -Meuse came a call of distress for Henri Trouville. - -Billy Barry was very busy that day with the work of constructing hollow -wooden beams and struts, and had just completed an inspection of a -brand-new monoplane which the factory had sold to a rich young fellow -who had taken a fancy to the flying sport. Coming out of the factory, -he met his chum and flying partner. Henri did not wear his usual smile. -With downcast head and his hands clasped behind him he was a picture of -gloom. - -“Hello, Henri, what’s hurting you?” was Billy’s anxious question. - -“Billy boy,” Henri sadly replied, “it’s good night to you and the -factory for me. I’m going home.” - -“Say, Buddy,” cried Billy, holding up his arm as though to ward off a -shock, “where did you get your fever? Must have been overwarm in your -shop to-day.” - -“It’s straight goods,” persisted Henri. “The world has fallen down on -Trouville and I’ve got to go back and find what is under it.” - -Billy with a sob in his voice: “Old pal, if it’s you--then it’s you and -me for it. I don’t care whether it’s mahogany, ash, spruce, lance-wood, -black walnut or hickory in the frame, we’ll ride it together.” - -“Oh, Billy!” tearfully argued Henri; “it’s a flame into which you’d -jump--and--and--it wouldn’t do at all. So, be a good fellow and say -good-by right here and get it over.” - -“You can’t shake me.” Billy was very positive in this. “We made ’em -look up at Atlantic City. We can just as well cause an eye-strain at -Ostend or any other old point over the water. The long way to Tipperary -or the near watch on the Rhine--it’s all one to me. I’m going, going -with you, Buddy. Here’s a hand on it!” - -The boys passed together through the factory gate, looking neither to -the right nor to the left, nor backward--on their way to great endeavor -and to perils they knew not of. - -Out to sea in a mighty Cunarder, the “flying kids,” as everybody -aboard called them, chiefly interested themselves in the ship’s -collection of maps. As they did not intend to become soldiers they were -too shrewd to go hunting ’round war zone cities asking questions as to -how to get to this place or that. They had no desire to be taken for -spies. - -“Right here, Billy,” said Henri, indicating with pencil point, “is -where we would be to-night if I could borrow the wings of a gull.” - -Billy, leaning over the map, remarked that a crow’s wings would suit -him better, adding: - -“For we would certainly have to do some tall dodging in that part of -the country just now.” - -“Do you know,” questioned Henri earnestly, “that I haven’t told you yet -of the big driving reason for this dangerous journey?” - -“Well,” admitted Billy, “you didn’t exactly furnish a diagram, but that -didn’t make much difference. The main point to me was that you tried to -say good-by to your twin.” - -“Billy,” continued Henri, drawing closer, and in voice only reaching -the ear at his lips, “behind a panel in the Château Trouville are -gold and jewels to the value of over a million francs. It is all that -remains of a once far greater fortune. My mother, when all hope of -turning back the invading armies had gone, fled to Paris in such haste -that she took with her little more of worth than the rings on her -hands. She may be in want even now--and she never wanted before in -her life. I am her free man--my brothers are in the trenches with the -Allies somewhere, I don’t know where. It’s up to me to save her fortune -and pour it into her lap.” - -“It’s the finest thing I know,” said Billy. “Show me the panel!” - - * * * * * - -Planning their first movement abroad, the boys that night decided to -make for Dover after landing. It was a most convenient point from -which to proceed to the French coast, and there they expected to find -two tried and true friends, airmen, too, Captain Leonidas Johnson and -Josiah Freeman, formerly employed as experts in the factory at home, -and both of whom owed much to Billy’s uncle in the way of personal as -well as business favors. - -What happened at Dover has already been told, and now to return to -them, stranded in the water off the Belgian coast. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. DRAGGED BY A ZEPPELIN. - - -For hours Billy had been stationed as lookout on the stranded -hydroplane. He was taking cat-naps, for it had been quite a while since -he last enjoyed a bed. While an expected round-shot from the shore -did not come to disturb the tired airmen, something else happened just -about as startling. In a waking moment Billy happened to look up, and -there he saw a great dirigible circling above the harbor. The boy’s -eyes were wide open now. - -“Henri,” he loudly whispered, prodding his sleeping chum with a ready -foot. “Look alive, boy! They’re coming after us from the top side!” - -Henri, alive in a jiffy, passed a friendly kick to Captain Johnson, and -he in turn bestowed a rib jab upon Freeman. Then all eyes were glued on -the hovering Zeppelin. - -A mile seaward, from the armored side of a gunboat, burst a red flash -wreathed by smoke; then a dull boom. The Zeppelin majestically swerved -to southwest course, all the time signaling to masked batteries along -the shore. - -“There is bigger game around here than us,” said Captain Johnson. “If -only those tanks were chockfull of petrol again we’d show them all a -clean pair of heels.” - -“If we don’t move somehow and soon,” gloomily put in Freeman, “we’ll be -dead wood between two fires.” - -The Zeppelin was now pushing skyward, buzzing like a million bees. Just -then a Taube aëroplane, armored, swooped toward the gunboat, evidently -British, which had endeavored to pot the Zeppelin. The scout-ship below -turned its anti-aircraft cannon and rifles against the latest invader, -cutting its wings so close that the Taube hunted a higher and safer -level. The Zeppelin had again lowered its huge hulk for the evident -purpose of dropping on the gunboat some of the bombs stored in its -special armored compartment. - -Another sputtering jet of flame from the gunboat and one of the -forward propellers of the airship collapsed and a second shot planted -a gash in her side. Sagging and wabbling, the dirigible headed for the -Belgian coast. When the black mass loomed directly above the stranded -sea-plane, Freeman gave a warning shout: - -“Down with you! She’s trailing her anchor!” - -By quick thought, in that thrilling, fleeting moment, Billy grabbed the -swinging anchor as it was dragged along near to him and deftly hooked -one of its prongs under the gun carriage at the sea-plane’s bow. - -With jerks that made every strut and wire crackle under the strain, the -hydroplane, on its polished floats, skipped over the waves, pulled this -way and that, now with elevated nose, now half under water, but holding -firmly to the trailing cable. - -Henri, with head over the wind-screen, keenly watched the shore for a -likely landing-place. The men in the cars of the disabled Zeppelin did -not seem to notice the extra weight on the anchor--they had troubles -of their own in getting the damaged dirigible to safe landing. - -Billy crouched in the bow-seat, his eyes fixed on the straining cable. -In his right hand he clutched a keen-edged hatchet, passed forward by -Freeman. Half drowned by the spray tossed in his face he awaited the -word from Henri. - -“Say when, old pard,” he cried, slightly turning his head. - -“If she pulls straight up and down,” remarked Captain Johnson in -Freeman’s ear, “it’s good night.” - -The coast line seemed rushing toward the incoming sea-plane, bouncing -about in the wide wash. - -Henri sighted a friendly looking cove, and excitedly sang out the word -for which his chum was waiting: - -“Now!” - -With the signal Billy laid the hatchet with sounding blows upon the -cable--and none too soon the tough strands parted. - -The sea-plane with the final snap of the hacked cable dashed into the -drift and plowed half its length in the sandy soil. The Zeppelin bobbed -away into the gathering dusk. - -Following the bump, Captain Johnson set the first foot on the sand. -Stretching himself, he fixed a glance of concern on the sea-plane. - -“I wonder if there is a joint in that craft that isn’t loose?” he -questioned. “But,” he added, with a note of sorrow, “it’s not likely -she will ever see her station again, and so what’s the difference?” - -“It was some voyage, though,” suggested Freeman in the way of comfort. - -“It was bully,” maintained Billy. “If we had traveled any other way, -Henri there would no doubt by this time have been wearing red trousers -and serving the big guns around Paris, and I might have been starving -while trying to get change for a ten-dollar bill in that big town.” - -“Do you think you will like it better,” asked Freeman, “to stand up -before a firing squad with a handkerchief tied ’round your eyes?” - -“I should worry,” laughed Billy. - -“There’s no scare in you, boy,” said Captain Johnson, giving Billy an -affectionate tap on the back. “Now,” he continued seriously, “it’s hard -to tell just what sort of reception we are going to get hereabouts. Old -Zip and I” (turning to Freeman) “certainly made the people on the paved -‘boardwalk’ stare with some of our flying stunts. But that was last -year.” - -“That reminds me,” broke in Billy, “that I have given the high ride to -several of the big ‘noises’ on all sides of the war, and they one and -all promised me the glad hand if I ever came to see them.” - -“That, too,” said Freeman, with a grin, “was a year or more ago.” - -“Speaking of time,” put in Henri, “it also seems to me a matter of a -year or two since I had anything to eat. I’m as hungry as a wolf.” - -“I’m with you on the eat proposition,” Billy promptly cast his vote. -“Where’s the turkey hid, Captain?” - -“It’s a lot of turkey you’ll get this night,” grimly replied the -captain. “There’s a little snack of sandwiches in the hold, cold roast, -I believe, but that’s all. We didn’t equip for a sail like this.” - -Billy and Henri lost no time rummaging for the sandwiches, and while -the meat and bread were being consumed to the last crumb by the hungry -four, Billy furnished an idea in place of dessert: - -“We don’t want to lose ten thousand dollars’ worth of flying machine on -this barren shore. Henri and I are going to do a bit of scouting while -the soldier crowd are busy among themselves up the coast. If there is -any petrol to be had we are going to have it.” - -Fitting action to the words, the two boys moved with stealthy tread, -Indian fashion, toward the ridge that shadowed and concealed the -temporary camp of the airmen. Captain Johnson did not wholly approve of -this venture on the part of the boys, but they did not give him time to -argue against it, and were soon beyond recall. - - - - -CHAPTER V. RAN AWAY WITH AN AUTOMOBILE. - - -Night had come and in front of one of the handsome hotels that had -escaped splintering when Ostend, the famous seaside resort, under -fire of big guns, was swept by shot and shell, Gun-Lieutenant Mertz -had just stepped out of a big gray automobile that looked like a high -speeder--the kind that has plenty of power. The driver of the car did -not wait for a second order to leave the lieutenant and speed away in -the direction of the mess quarters, where he knew that there was a -fragrant stew being prepared for duty men coming in late. - -The fighting of the day had mostly taken place far up the coast, and -the chance had arrived for a loosening of belts in Ostend. - -With a final chug the big gray car came to a standstill in a quiet -corner off the main street, while the hungry chauffeur joined his -comrades in what they called pot-luck. The movements of this man had -been watched with a large amount of interest by a pair of visitors, who -had chosen the darkest places they could find while approaching the -dining hall of the soldiers. - -“Gee!” whispered one of the watchers to the other. “I can almost feel a -bullet in my back.” - -From the companion shadow: “Take your foot out of my face, can’t you?” - -Two heads uplifted at the sight of the rear lights of the car. - -Again an excited whisper: - -“Now for it, Billy!” - -The soldiers were laughing and talking loudly in the dining hall. - -The boys crawled along, carefully avoiding the light that streamed from -the windows of the hall. A moment later they nimbly climbed into the -car. Henri took the wheel and gently eased the big machine away into -the shadowy background. Then he stopped the car and intently listened -for any sound of alarm. The soldiers were singing some war song in the -dining hall, keeping time with knives and forks. - - * * * * * - -It was a good time for the boys to make a start in earnest, and they -started with no intention of stopping this side of the ridge, behind -which their friends were anxiously watching and waiting for them. - -Henri drove cautiously until he felt sure that they were out of the -principal avenues of travel, and then he made things hum. He guided -straight toward a clump of trees showing black against the moon just -appearing above the crest of the hill. The riding grew rough, but the -speed never slackened. At last the goal was reached. The car bumped -and bounced up, and bounced and bumped down the hill. - -Leaping from the machine, Billy fairly rolled to the feet of the -startled crew of the sea-plane. - -“So help me,” exclaimed Captain Johnson, “if I didn’t think it was a -section of the Fourth Corps after our scalps!” - -“Hurry!” gasped Billy. “Get anything that will hold oil, and get it -quick!” - -For the moment confused, Johnson and Freeman seemed tied fast to the -ground. - -Henri rolled into the circle and added his gasp: - -“We’ve a touring car up there and its tanks are loaded!” - -Then the boss mechanic, Freeman, came to the front. From the depths of -the engine room in the motor end of the sea-plane he pulled a heavy -coil of rubber tubing and in a few minutes made attachments that tapped -the automobile’s plentiful supply of petrol and sent it gurgling into -the empty tanks of the sea-plane. - -Across the sandy plain came the sound, faintly, of shouting. Maybe -somebody had discovered that the officer’s car was missing. - -As Billy suggested with a laugh: - -“Perhaps they think some joy riders took it.” - -“I’m not going to stay to find out what they think,” very promptly -asserted Captain Johnson. “Heave her out, boys!” - -The sea-plane took the water like a duck. Obedient to Johnson’s touch -it leaped upward, the motors were humming, and with a cheery cackle -Freeman announced: - -“We’re off again.” - -“And they are showing us the way,” cried Billy, as a great searchlight -inland sent a silver shaft directly overhead. - -Bang! Bang! Bang! Riflemen on the ridge were popping at the sea-plane. - -“There’s a salute for good measure,” observed Henri. - -“Lucky we’re out of range of those snipers, but I’m thinking the -batteries might attempt to take a whack at us.” - -With these words Captain Johnson set the planes for another jump -skyward. - -“There’s the good old moon to bluff the searchlight,” sang out Billy -from the lookout seat. “And, see, there’s a row of smokestacks sticking -out of the water. Sheer off, Captain; don’t let those cruisers pump a -shot at us. They’d wreck this flyer in a minute!” - -The sea-plane was taking the back-track at fine speed when valve -trouble developed in the engine room. The cylinders were missing fire, -and all of Freeman’s expert tinkering failed to prevent the necessity -of rapid descent. The hum of the motors died away, and Captain Johnson -dived the craft seaward with almost vertical plunge. The sea-plane -hit the water with a dipping movement that raised a fountain over the -lookout, and it was Billy that cried “Ugh!” when he was drenched from -head to foot by the downfall of several gallons of cold water. - -The aircraft had alighted only a few rods from land, in a shallow, -marshy bay. The place was as silent as the grave, save for the calling -of the night birds and the gentle lapping of the waves. Freeman with -the aid of an extra propeller fitting, paddled the craft into shore, -and was soon busy trying to find out what was the matter with the -machinery. Captain Johnson held the acetylene flare over Freeman’s -shoulder to enable the engineer to see where repair was needed. - -Billy and Henri, out of a job for the time being, concluded that they -would do some exploring. After wading through the mud, weeds and matted -grass for a hundred yards or so they reached firm footing on higher -ground. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. DEATH RIDE OF AN AVIATOR. - - -The moon was shining brightly, and over the plain that stretched out -before them on the left the boys could see quite a distance, but no -sign of human life presented itself. On the right, however, a half mile -away, was a sharp rise of ground and tall trees. Toward this point they -decided to proceed. Then it was that they first realized the experience -of standing on a battlefield. - -Crossing the field they saw the ravages of artillery projectiles--deep, -conical holes, five or six feet in diameter. Here, too, they found -shrapnel cases, splinters of shells, skeletons of horses, fragments of -bloodstained clothing and cartridge pouches. The moonlight made the -path as open as day, and each object reminding of terrible conflict -was apparently magnified by the white shine of the moon. The boys -walked as in a dream, and were first awakened by the flapping wings of -a huge bird, frightened by their approach from its perch on a broken -gun-carriage. - -“Let’s get out of this,” mumbled Henri; “it gives me shivery shakes; -it’s a graveyard, and it seems like ghosts of dead soldiers are -tracking us.” - -Billy was short on nerves, but if he had been called on for a -confession just then he might have pleaded guilty to a tremble or two. - -He managed to put on a bold front, however, and was about to give Henri -a brace by telling him they would have to get used to the ways of war, -when there was a sound like the roll of distant thunder far to the -south. - -“What’s that?” - -Billy’s sudden question drove the ghosts away from Henri’s mind, and -both boys ran like deer up the hill to the line of trees. - -“There’s no storm over there,” panted Henri. “You can’t see a cloud as -big as a man’s hand.” - -“That isn’t thunder!” exclaimed Billy. “That’s cannon! They’re shooting -at something!” - -“There,” cried Henri, “that sounds like fire-crackers now.” - -“Rifles,” observed Billy. - -“Look!” Billy was pointing to what appeared, at the distance, to be a -speck on the face of the moon. - -The sound of gunfire increased, report after report--crack, crack, -boom, boom, boom. - -Across and far above the moonlit plain, arrow-like, sped a winged -shadow, growing in size as it swiftly approached. - -“An aëroplane!” The boys well knew that kind of a bird. They called its -name in one voice. - -“That’s what has been drawing the fire of those guns.” - -Billy had found the problem easy to solve when he noted the getaway -tactics of the coming airman. - -The boys could now hear the whirring of the motor. Fifty yards away the -aëroplane began to descend. Gracefully it volplaned to the earth under -perfect control. It landed safely, rolled a little way, and stopped. - -The boys, without a second thought, raced down the slope to greet the -aviator, like one of their own kind should be greeted, but as quickly -halted as they drew nearer. - -The airman was dead. - -He had been fatally wounded at the very start of his last flight, but -just before death, at its finish, had set his planes for a descent. -With his dead hands gripping the controllers, the craft had sailed -to the earth. He wore the yellowish, dirt-colored khaki uniform of a -British soldier. - -Billy and Henri removed their caps in reverence to valor and to honor -the memory of a gallant comrade who had been game to the last. - -Releasing the dead aviator from his death grip on the controllers, the -boys tenderly lifted the corpse from the driver’s seat in the machine -and covered the upturned face and glazed eyes with the muffler the -airman had worn about his neck. The body was that of a youth of slight -build, but well muscled. In the pockets of his blouse the boys found a -pencil, a memorandum book and a photograph, reduced to small size by -cutting round the face--a motherly type, dear to all hearts. - -The usual mark of identity of soldiers in the field was missing, but -on the third finger of the left hand was a magnificent seal ring, on -which was engraved an eagle holding a scroll in its beak and clutching -a sheaf of arrows in its talons. - -Billy took possession of these effects with silent determination to -some day deliver them to the pictured mother, if she could be found. - -“The ring shows that he came of a noble house,” said Henri, who had -some knowledge of heraldry. - -“He was a brave lad, for all that, and noble in himself,” remarked -Billy, who had the American idea that every man is measured by his own -pattern. - -So they gave the dead youth the best burial they could, at the foot of -one of the giant trees, and sadly turned away to inspect the aëroplane -that had been so strangely guided. - -It was a beautiful machine, all the fine points visible to their -practiced eyes--a full-rigged military biplane, armor plates and all. -The tanks of extra capacity were nearly full of petrol. - -“It must have been a short journey, as well as a fatal one,” said -Billy. “Very likely the launching was from a British ship, not far -out at sea, and the purpose was to make a lookover of the German land -forces around here.” - -“I’d like to take a little jaunt in that machine,” sighed Henri, who -could not tear himself away from the superb flyer. - -“It may turn out that you will--stranger things have happened.” - -Billy proved to be a prophet, but it was not a “little jaunt,” but a -long ride that the boys took in that aëroplane. - -An unpleasant surprise was in immediate store for them. - -They decided that it was about time that they should return to their -friends and the sea-plane, and were full of and eager to tell Johnson -and Freeman of the results of their scouting. - -“Guess the captain won’t wonder at anything we do since we brought that -automobile into camp,” declared Billy. “You know he said that he hadn’t -any breath to save for our next harum-scarum performance.” - -“I can just see Freeman grin when I tell him that we have found a -flying-machine that can beat his sea-sailer a mile. That’s my part of -the story, you know,” added Henri. - -“I can’t help thinking of the poor fellow who rode her last,” was -Billy’s sober response. - -The boys were nearing the point where the heavy walking began. -Otherwise they would have broken into a run, so eager were they to tell -about their adventures. - -Coming out of the weeds and ooze, they stood looking blankly at the -spot where the sea-plane had rested. - -The sea-plane and their friends were gone! - - - - -CHAPTER VII. ALONE ON A STRANGE COAST. - - -When the boys made the startling discovery that the sea-plane had -disappeared and that they were alone on the strange coast, they plumped -down on the sand without a single idea in the world except that they -were utterly tired out and weak from hunger. - -They could not account in any way for the mysterious happening that had -deprived them of their tried and true friends. - -Not for a moment did they imagine that they had been deserted by -intent. They knew full well that even in the face of great danger -Captain Johnson and Josiah Freeman were not the kind of men who would -fly away, without sign or signal, and leave a comrade in distress, let -alone these boys for whom either of the men would have spilled his last -drop of blood. - -“The coast patrol nabbed them,” was the opinion of Billy. - -“They were held up at the point of a bayonet, I’ll bet,” argued Henri, -“for there is no sign of a struggle, and we would have heard it if -there had been any shooting.” - -“However it was,” figured Billy, “they never quit of their own accord; -they would never have left us unless they had been hauled away by -force. Now it is up to us to skirmish for ourselves, which, anyhow, I -expected to do sooner or later. There’s no use staying here, for they -will be coming after us next.” - -Wearily the boys plodded through the slush, backtracking to the foot -of the hill where they had left the aëroplane. The fading moon was -lost behind a wall of slowly rising mist, and the dawn was breaking in -the east when the boys finally stumbled upon the place that held their -prize. Wholly exhausted, they threw themselves full length upon the -ground and slept like logs. - -The sun was broadly shining when Billy reached out a lazy arm to -poke his chum, who was snuggled up in the grass and breathing like a -porpoise. - -“Get up and hear the birds sing,” yawned Billy. - -“I’d a good sight rather hear a kettle or a coffee-pot sing,” yawned -Henri. - -“Right O,” agreed Billy. - -The boys rolled over alongside of the aëroplane. A twin thought came to -them that the late aviator surely must have carried something to eat -with him. - -It proved a glorious truth. There was a knapsack behind the driver’s -seat and a canteen swinging under the upper plane. - -“A meat pie!” Billy made the first find. - -“Crackers and cheese!” Heard from Henri. - -How good these rations tasted--even the lukewarm water in the canteen -was like nectar. With new life the boys took up the problem presented -by the next move. - -Henri climbed into the aëroplane and very carefully inspected the -delicate machinery, making free use of the oil can. Billy otherwise -attended to the tuning of the craft, and everything was as right as a -trivet in less than a half hour. - -“Let me see”--Billy was thumbing a well-worn notebook--“as we fixed it -on the steamer, Dunkirk was the starting place. But that storm entirely -changed the route--a longer way round, I guess. No more Ostend for -me, though I do wish I knew for sure whether or not they had Captain -Johnson and Freeman locked up there. Let’s try for Bruges; that’s only -a short distance from here, and we can follow the line of the canal so -we won’t get lost.” - -“And we can fly high,” suggested Henri, “high enough to keep from -getting plugged.” - -“I am not bothering so much about the ‘high’ part of it as I am about -where we’ll land,” said Billy. “We may fall into a hornet’s nest.” - -“Let’s make it Bruges, for luck,” suggested Henri. - -“Here goes, then,” exclaimed Billy, getting into steering position, -Henri playing passenger. - -Off they skimmed on the second stage of their journey to the valley of -the Meuse, in France. - -They had entered the zone where five nations were at each other’s -throats. - -So swift was their travel that our Aviator Boys very soon looked down -upon the famous old belfry of Bruges, the old gabled houses, with -bright red tiled roofs, mirrored in the broad canal crossed by many -stone bridges. That is what Bruges means, “bridges.” To the young -airmen, what the town meant just now was a good dinner, if they did not -have to trade their lives or their liberty for a chance to get it. - -“Nothing doing here,” lamented Henri, who did the looking down while -Billy looked ahead. “I see that there are too many gray-coats visiting -in West Flanders. And I heard that the Belgians have not been giving -‘days at home’ since the army came. Now I see that it is true.” - -“Having fun with yourself?” queried Billy, in the sharp tone necessary -to make himself heard in a buzzing aircraft. - -Henri ignored the question, snapping: “The book says it’s thirty-five -miles from here to Ypres, straight; keep your eyes on the waterways, -and you can’t miss it.” - -“Another thing the book says,” snapped Billy, in response, “is that -that old town is in a district as flat as a floor, and, if nothing -else, we are sure of a landing.” - -“I wish we were as sure of a dinner.” Henri never lost sight of the -dinner question. - -The flight was continued in silence. It was a strain to keep up -conversation, and the boys quit talking to rest their throats. Besides, -there was not a drop of water left in the canteen. - -It was late afternoon when the boys saw Ypres beneath them. It was just -about the time that the Allies were advancing in the region between -Ypres and Roulers, the town where the best Flemish lace comes from. But -the Allies had not yet reached Ypres. - -Henri glimpsed the remains of some ancient fortifications, and urged -Billy to make a landing right there. - -“A good place to hide in case of emergency,” he advised. - -Billy agreed, set the planes for a drop, and came down neatly in the -open. - -“We ought to be able to get a change of linen here, for that’s the -big business in this town.” Henri was pretty well posted, for in his -cradle he had slept on Ypres linen. - -There was no work going on in the fertile fields around the town. The -Belgian peasants thereabouts were either under arms or under cover. - -“When King Louis set up these old ramparts he probably did not -look forward to the day when they would provide a hangar for a -flying-machine.” This from Billy, who was pushing the aëroplane to the -shelter of a crumbling fortalice. - -“If we had dropped in on the fourteenth century, as we did to-day,” -observed Henri, “I’ll warrant that we would have scared everybody out -of Flanders.” - -“It doesn’t appear, as it is, that there is a person around here bold -enough to approach us.” - -Billy seemed surprised that they had not run into trouble at the very -start. - -“‘Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you,’” quoted Henri. “It -goes something like that, I think.” - -“Listen!” Billy raised a hand to warn Henri not to move nor speak -aloud. The sound that had put Billy on the alert was a long, low -whistle. It was repeated, now and again. Curious, and also impressed -that the whistler was trying to attract their attention, they began a -search among the ruins. Over the top of a huge slab of stone suddenly -popped a red cap, covering a regular Tom Thumb among Belgians--about -four feet from tow head to short boots. - -Henri said “Howdy” to him in French, at the same time extending a -friendly hand. The youngster, evidently about fifteen, shyly gave Henri -two fingers in greeting. He bobbed his head to Billy. Then he removed -his red cap and took out of it a soiled and crumpled slip of paper. On -the slip, apparently torn from a notebook, was scribbled: - - “This boy saw you fly in, told us how you looked, and, if it is - you, this will let you know that the Germans brought us here for - safe-keeping yesterday. CAP.” - -“Glory be!” Billy could hardly contain himself, and the little Belgian -took his first lesson in tangoing from an American instructor. “As -soon as it is dark we will move on the outer works,” was his joyous -declaration. - -“Say, my young friend,” he added, “do you know where we can get a -bite to eat while we’re waiting?” Henri translated, and the little -Belgian was off like a shot. About dusk he returned with some bread -and bologna, looped up in a fancy colored handkerchief. And there was -plenty of water in the Yperlee river. - -Along about 11 o’clock that night Leon, the little Belgian, whispered, -“_Venez_” (Come). - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. ONE DARK NIGHT IN YPRES. - - -The sky had turned dark over Ypres, rain had commenced to fall in -streets so remarkably clean that they really did not need this bath -from above. It was just the kind of a night, though, for the risky -venture undertaken by our Aviator Boys. They were going to see their -old friends, and nothing but a broken leg would check their willing -steps on the way to the prison house that contained Captain Johnson and -Josiah Freeman. - -Leon knew the best way to get there. The darkest ways were light to -him, and he was not afraid that rain would spoil his clothes. To guide -these wonderful flying boys was the happiest thing that had happened to -him in all his days, and, too, he had a strong dislike for the Germans -who had invaded the homeland. His father was even now fighting in the -ranks of the Allies at Nieuport, and his mother was wearing her heart -out in the fields as the only breadwinner for her little brood. - -There were comparatively few of the gray troops then in the town. The -main columns were moving north to the Dixmude region, where the horizon -was red with burning homes. To guard prisoners, garrison the town and -care for the wounded not many soldiers were then needed in Ypres, and -non-commissioned officers mostly were in command. - -The streets were empty and silent, and lights only occasionally seen. -At midnight Billy, Henri and Leon paused in the deep shadow of a tall -elm, the branches of which swept the front of the dingy red brick -dwelling, two stories in height and heavily hung with vines. Leon knew -the place like a book, for he had been serving as an errand boy for the -guards quartered there. - -He whispered to Henri that the men who had sent the note were in the -front room on the second floor. - -Behind the brick wall at the side of the house was a garden. Billy and -Henri, on Leon’s advice, decided to try the deep-set door in the garden -wall as the only way to get in without stirring up the sentry in the -front hall. With the first push on the door the rusty hinges creaked -loudly. - -The front door of the house was thrown open, and a shaft of light -pierced the darkness. The boys backed up against the wall, scarcely -daring to breathe. The soldier looked up at the clouds, knocked the -ashes out of his pipe, muttered something to himself, turned back and -slammed the door with a bang. At this the boys gave a backward heave, -and were through the door and into the garden. - -This interior was blacker than the mouth of an inkwell. Billy -cautiously forced the door back in place. - -“Got any matches?” Billy had failed to find any in his own pockets. - -Henri was better supplied. In the military aëroplane he had not -only found matches, but also a box of tapers, and he had taken the -precaution of putting them in his pockets when they left the machine. - -With a little flame, carefully shaded, the boys discovered a -shaky-looking ladder in a grape-arbor at the back of the garden. - -By degrees, foot by foot, they edged the ladder alongside of the house, -and gently hoisted it to the window of the upper room, which Leon had -assured them was the right one. - -“Let’s shy some pebbles against the window to let them know we are -here,” was the whispered suggestion of Henri. - -“Nothing doing.” Billy was going to have a look in first. He was -already crawling up the ladder. Henri laid hold of the lower rungs, to -keep the rickety frame steady, and Leon stationed himself at the garden -door, ready and alert to give warning whistle if anything happened in -front. - -Billy tapped softly on the window pane. The sash was silently raised, -and Billy crept in. - -Not a word had been spoken, and no signal from the room above. - -Standing in the dark and the rain in the dismal garden, Henri was of -half a mind to follow his comrade without further delay. It was an -anxious moment. - -A bird-like trill from Leon. With this call Henri left the ladder and -tiptoed to the garden door to join the little Belgian and find out what -was the matter. - -From far up the silent street, coming with measured tread, a regiment -was marching. The watchers at the door of the garden now plainly heard -gruff commands and the other usual sounds of military movement. - -“I must let Billy know; the soldiers are headed this way and might be -coming to move the prisoners somewhere else.” - -Henri had started back toward the house, when suddenly the window was -thrown up, and, with a sound like the tearing of oil-cloth, Billy came -down the ladder and landed with a bump on the graveled walk. - -Henri and Leon, in the space of a second, rushed to the side of their -fallen comrade. - -In the street outside there was a crash that shook the silence as -though the silence was solid. A regiment had grounded arms directly in -front of the house. - -Billy, who for a moment had been stunned by the force of his bump into -the walk, at the end of a twenty-foot slide, jumped to his feet, and -in a breath urged his companions to run. - -“Let’s get out of this; over the wall with you!” - -The boys bolted for the back wall of the garden, dragging the ladder, -and speedily mingled on all fours on the coping, the top of which was -strewn with broken glass. - -Hanging by their hands on the outer side of the wall they chanced the -long drop. As luck would have it, they landed in soft places--on a pile -of ashes and garbage. - -Lights sprang up in the windows of the house behind them. It was -evident that a change of base was to be made. - -“Did you see our fellows?” was Henri’s first eager question, as he -shook off his coat of ashes. - -“You bet I did,” coughed Billy, whose face had plowed a furrow in the -ash heap. “A bunch of the gray men in a motor boat pounced on them -while they were tinkering with the sea-plane and took them and the -plane in tow to Ostend. They were brought down here so that General So -and So, I don’t remember who, could look them over, but the general and -his brigade have gone off somewhere to the north to try and stop the -advance of the Allies. The captain and Freeman both say they are in no -special danger and are very kindly treated. They have their papers as -American citizens and agents abroad for our factory. Then there is the -storm story as their reason for being blown into the war zone without -fighting clothes. - -“How did I come to quit that house yonder like a skyrocket? Well, just -as the captain and I had finished exchanging experiences, and old Josh -Freeman had nearly broken my ribs with a bear hug, one of the rounders -in the house concluded to pay a visit to the room where we were. We -didn’t hear him until he reached the top of the stairs, where he -stopped to sneeze. With that sneeze I did my leaping act. That soldier -never saw me; I’ll wager on that.” - -“What’ll we do now?” That was more what Henri wanted to know. - -“Get back to the machine before daylight.” Billy’s main idea was that -the safest place was a couple of thousand feet in the air. - -Daylight was not far away. Henri and Leon held a committee meeting -to determine the best route back to the fortifications. The little -Belgian was sure of his ground, and before sunrise, by countless twists -and turns, the trio were back to the stone hangar where the aëroplane -rested. - -The first faint streaks of dawn gave light enough for Billy to do his -tuning work about the machine. Henri was bending over, in the act of -testing the fuel supply, when there was a thud of horses’ hoofs on all -sides of the enclosure, followed by a shrill cry from Leon: - -“_Sauvez vous! Vite! Vite!_” (Save yourself! Quick! Quick!) - -With that the little Belgian frantically tugged at the aëroplane, and -not until our Aviator Boys had swung the machine into the open and -leaped to their places in the frame did the brave youngster quit his -post. Then he ran like a rabbit, waving quick farewell, and disappeared -in the wilderness of stone. - -Lickety clip the aëroplane moved over the ground. Then up and away! - -A pistol shot rang out. A cavalryman nearest to the point of flight was -behind the weapon. - -Barely a hundred feet in the air and Henri leaned heavily against Billy. - -“I’m hit!” he gasped, “but don’t let go. Keep her going!” - - - - -CHAPTER IX. TESTING BILLY’S NERVE. - - -It was indeed a severe test of Billy Barry’s nerve that was put -upon him in this trying moment. To let go of the controllers of the -aëroplane would mean the finish; to neglect for an instant his comrade, -whom he believed to be bleeding to death, was agony. Almost blindly -he set the planes for a nearly vertical descent from a dizzy height -of three thousand feet which the machine had attained before Billy -had fully realized that he was holding across his knees the inert body -of his beloved chum. Like a plummet the aircraft dropped eastward. -With rare presence of mind Billy shifted for a rise when close to the -ground, and managed to land without wrecking the machine. A scant ten -feet, though, to the right, and the aëroplane would have crashed into a -cow-shed and all would have been over. - -An old woman, digging potatoes nearby, was so frightened when this -winged bolt came down from the sky that she gave a squawk and fell -backward into the big basket behind her. - -When Billy had tenderly lifted out and laid Henri upon the turf, he ran -to the well in front of the neat farmhouse, filled his leather cap with -water, and hastened back to bathe the deathly pale face and throbbing -temples of his wounded chum. With the cooling application Henri opened -his eyes and smiled at the wild-eyed lad working with all his soul to -win him back to life. - -“I am not done for yet, old scout,” he faintly murmured. - -Billy gulped down a sob. - -“You’re coming around all right, Buddy, cried Billy, holding a wet and -loving hand upon Henri’s forehead. - -“The pain is in my right shoulder,” advised Henri; “I have just begun -to feel it. Guess that is where the bullet went in.” - -“Let me see it.” Billy assumed a severe professional manner. The -attempt, however, to remove the jacket sleeve from the injured arm -brought forth such a cry of pain from Henri that Billy drew back in -alarm. - -“Ask the woman for a pair of shears,” suggested Henri, “and cut away -the sleeve.” - -“Hi, there!” called Billy to the old woman, who had risen from the -basket seat, but still all of a tremble. - -“Get her here,” urged Henri. “I can make her understand.” - -Billy, bowing and beckoning, induced the woman to approach. - -Henri, politely: - -“_Madame, j’ai ete blesse. Est-ce que nous restons ici?_” (Madam, I -have been wounded. Can we rest here?) - -“_Je n’ecoute pas bien. J’appelerai, Marie._” (I do not hear good. I -will call Marie.) - -With that the old woman hobbled away, and quickly reappeared with -“Marie,” a kindly-eyed, fine type of a girl, of quite superior manner. - -Henri questioned: “_Vous parlez le Français?_” (You speak French?) - -“_Oui, monsieur; j’ai demeure en le sud-est._” (Yes, monsieur; I have -lived in the southeast.) - -The girl quickly added, with a smiling display of a fine row of teeth: -“And I speak the English, too. I have nursed the sick in London.” - -“Glory be!” Billy using his favorite expression. “Get busy!” - -Marie “got busy” with little pocket scissors, cut the jacket and shirt -free of the wound, washed away the clotted blood and soon brightly -announced: - -“No bullet here; it went right through the flesh, high up; much blood, -but no harm to last.” - -Cutting up a linen hand-towel, Marie skillfully bandaged the wound, -and, later, as neatly mended the slashes she had made in Henri’s jacket -and shirt. - -For ten days the boys rested at the farmhouse, Henri rapidly recovering -strength. - -They learned much about Belgium from Marie. She laughingly told Henri -that his French talk was good to carry him anywhere among the Walloons -in the southeastern half of Belgium, but in the northwestern half he -would not meet many of the Flemings who could understand him. “You -would have one hard time to speak Flemish,” she assured him. - -Henri confided to Marie that they were bound for the valley of the -Meuse. - -“La la,” cried the girl, “but you are taking the long way. Yet,” she -continued, “you missed some fighting by coming the way you did from -Bruges.” - -On the eleventh morning Henri told Billy at breakfast that he (Henri) -was again as “fit as a fiddle.” “Let’s be moving,” he urged. - -“All right.” Billy himself was getting restless. They had been -absolutely without adventure for ten long days. - -But, when Henri returned from a visit to the aëroplane, he wore a long -face. - -“There’s no more ‘ammunition’ in the tanks,” he wailed. “There isn’t as -much as two miles left.” - -“That means some hiking on the ground.” With this remark Billy made a -critical survey of his shoes. “Guess they’ll hold out if the walking is -good.” Henri, however, was not in a humor to be amused. - -“I say, Billy, what’s the matter with making a try for Roulers? Trouble -or no trouble, we’ll not be standing around like we were hitched. It -would be mighty easy if we could take the air. No use crying, though, -about spilt milk.” - -Marie, who had been an attentive listener, putting on an air of -mystery, called the attention of the boys to a certain spot on the -cleanly scrubbed floor, over which was laid a small rug of home -weaving. The girl pushed aside the rug and underneath was shown the -lines of a trap-door, into which Marie inserted a chisel point. The -opening below disclosed a short flight of steps leading down to an -underground room, where candle light further revealed, among other -household treasures, such as a collection of antique silver and the -like, two modern bicycles. - -“The boys who rode those,” said Marie, pointing to the cycles, “may -never use them again. They were at Liège when it fell, and never a word -from them since. On good roads and in a flat country you can travel far -on these wheels. Take them, and welcome, if you have to go.” - -In an hour the boys were on the road. They left two gold-pieces under -the tablecloth and a first-class aëroplane as evidence of good faith. - - - - -CHAPTER X. ON THE ROAD TO ROULERS. - - -Our Aviator Boys had not for a long time been accustomed to use their -legs as vigorously and so continuously as required to make an endurance -record on a bicycle. They had no great use for legs when flying. But -they were light-hearted, and had been well fed, had enough in their -knapsacks to stave off hunger for several days, and, barring the fact -that Henri was still nursing a sore shoulder, ready to meet the best -or the worst. Billy carried a compass, also a mind full of directions -from Marie, and firmly believed that he could not miss the good old -town in the fertile meadow on the little river Mander. At least Henri -and himself could live or die trying. - -They had already observed indications that, even with the strenuous -call to the colors of the Belgian men, the little kingdom was thickly -populated, and about every square inch of farm land was under close -cultivation. - -“Suppose people lived this close together in Texas,” remarked Billy, -as they pedaled along; “why, a man as tall across the front as Colonel -McCready wouldn’t have room enough to turn around.” - -“Yes, and from what we have heard of the war crowd working this way -we’ll have to have more room than this to keep from running into them.” -Henri was not in the same mood that he was when he found the aëroplane -tanks empty. - -“Nothing like a scare-mark so far,” was Billy’s comment. “I have seen -only women in the fields.” - -“Even the dogs have work to do here.” - -Henri went on to explain that the small farmers, as a rule, cannot -afford to keep horses, and just now could not keep them if they had -them. - -The boys had been fortunate in their first day’s travel as cyclists, in -that they had not even fallen in with the stragglers of the contending -armies reported in terrible conflict inside the Dixmude-Nieuport line. - -In the afternoon of the second day, however, they took the wrong road, -one leading to Bixchoote. - -In the distance they heard heavy and continuous artillery fire, and -decided to turn back. “Out of the frying-pan into what next?” as Billy -put it, when they found the woods north of Ypres were aflame with -bursting shells. Fighting in front and fighting in the rear. - -“The sides are still open,” declared Henri, “even if both ends are -plugged.” - -“But which side shall it be?” asked Billy. - -The situation was one of great peril to the boys. - -To get a better idea of the lay of the land, they rolled their bicycles -into the woods alongside the road and climbed into the low hanging -branches of a huge tree, then ascended to the very top of this monarch -of the forest. - -From their lofty perch they could see quite a distance in all -directions, but they had no eyes for any part of the panorama after the -first glance to the south. The firing line stretched out before their -vision, presenting an awe-inspiring scene. - -The shell fire from the German batteries was so terrific that Belgian -soldiers and French marines were continually being blown out of their -dugouts and sent scattering to cover. The distant town was invisible -except for flames and smoke clouds rising above it. - -The tide of battle streamed nearer to the wood where the boys had taken -shelter. From their high point of vantage they were soon forced to -witness one of the most horrible sights imaginable. - -A heavy howitzer shell fell and burst in the midst of a Belgian -battery, which was making its way to the front, causing awful -destruction--mangled men and horses going down in heaps. - -Henri was in a chill of horror, and Billy so shaken that it was -with difficulty that they resisted a wild desire to jump into -space--anything to shut out the appalling picture. - -The next instant they were staring down upon a hand-to-hand conflict -in the woods, within two hundred yards of the tree in which they were -perched. British and Germans were engaged in a bayonet duel, in which -the former force triumphed, leaving the ground literally covered with -German wounded and dead, hardly a man in gray escaping the massacre. - -“I can see nothing but red!” Henri was shaking like a leaf. - -Billy gave his chum a sharp tap on the cheek with the palm of his hand, -hoping thus to divert Henri’s mind and restore his courage. - -Billy himself had about all he could do to keep his teeth together, -but, by the unselfish devotion he gave to his comrade, he overcame his -fear. - -“Come, Buddy,” he pleaded; “take a brace! Easy, now; there’s a way to -get out of this, I know there is. Put your foot here; your hand there; -steady; we’ll be off in a minute.” - -By the time the boys had descended to the lower branches of the tree, -Henri was once more on “even keel,” in the language of the aviator. - -A long limb of the tree extended out over the road. On this the boys -wormed their way to the very tip, intending to drop into the highway, -recover their bicycles, and make a dash for safety across the country -to the west, following the well defined trail worn smooth by the -passage of ammunition wagons. - -As they clung to the limb, intently listening and alert for any -movement that would indicate a returning tide of battle in the -immediate neighborhood, a riderless horse, a magnificent coal-black -animal, carrying full cavalry equipment, came galloping down the road, -urged to ever increasing speed by the whipping against its flanks of -swinging holsters. - -“Here’s the one chance in the world!” - -Billy swung himself around and leaned forward like a trapeze performer -in a circus, preparing for a high dive into a net. - -The horse’s high-flung head just grazed the leaves of the big branch, -bent down under the weight of the boys. - -Billy dropped astride of the racing charger, saved from a heavy fall -in the road by getting a quick neck hold, seized the loose bridle -reins with convulsive grip and brought the foam-flecked animal to a -standstill within fifty yards. This boy had tamed more than one frisky -broncho down in Texas, U. S. A., and for a horse wearing the kind of a -curb bit in his mouth that this one did, Billy had a sure brake-setting -pull. - -Henri made a cat-fall into the dusty road and right speedily got the -hand-up from his mounted comrade. - -Off they went on the trail to the open west, with clatter of hoofs, and -the wind blowing free in the set, white faces of the gallant riders. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. THEY MEET A GENERAL. - - -“I don’t know where we are going, but we’re on the way,” sang Billy, -whose spirits now ranged to a high pitch. “This beats anything we’ve -rung up yet in our target practice over here,” he gloated. “Isn’t he -a jolly old roadster?” Billy had checked the horse to a slow canter, -after a run of two miles. - -“Let’s have a bit of a rest.” Henri’s sore shoulder was troubling him. -He still had his knapsack with some jumbled food in it. Billy had lost -his food supply when he made his leap on the horse. - -While the animal was cropping the short grass along the trail the -riders took their ease by lounging on the turf and feeding on their -crumbled lunch. - -“This is a thirsty picnic,” asserted Billy. “My throat is as dry as -powder. Let’s see if there isn’t a spring ’round here.” - -Hooking the bridle reins over his arm, Billy led the way on a search -for water. At the bottom of a wooded hill the boys found themselves in -a marsh, and though bitter and brackish the water was a grateful relief -to their parched tongues. The horse acted as though he had not had a -drink for a week. - -A little further on, in a meadow, the boys made a singular discovery. -They were amazed to see an important looking personage in a gorgeous -uniform, covered with decorations, wandering about the meadow like a -strayed sheep. - -“What the dickens is that?” exclaimed Henri. - -“Give it up.” Billy couldn’t even make a guess. “He shows gay but -harmless. I think I’ll look him over.” - -On approaching the richly attired wanderer the boys with wonder noticed -that he carried a gold-tipped baton and from a shiny knapsack on his -shoulders rolls of music protruded. - -The strange being kept proclaiming that he was going to direct the -German military music on a triumphal parade through the streets of -Paris. Henri could understand that much of the disconnected talk, and -also that the speaker was the head musician of the German army in -Belgium. He had been cut off from his command and become possessed by -a fit of melancholy from which the boys found it impossible to rouse -him. They divided with him what remained of the contents of Henri’s -knapsack, but could not induce him to proceed with them. - -“It’s a pity that a man like that should lose his reason. But this -dreadful war strikes in most any kind of way, and if it isn’t one way -it’s another.” - -Henri was still thinking of the horrible happening when the Belgian -battery was literally blown to pieces under his very eyes. - -“There’s a peaceful sleeper here, anyhow,” said Billy, pausing, as they -trudged along, leading the horse toward the trail. He pointed to a -little mound above which had been set a rude wooden cross. It was the -grave of a French soldier, for on the cross had been placed his cap, -showing the name of his regiment. On the mound, too, had been scattered -a few wild flowers. - -“Somebody who had a heart for the cause or the fighter must have passed -this way,” observed Henri. “The burial of a soldier near the battle -lines hasn’t much ceremony, I am told, and surely doesn’t include -flowers.” - -The boys slept that night in the open, with the saddle for a pillow. -They were awakened just before dawn by the restless antics of Bon Ami -(“Good Friend”)--for so Henri had named the horse. The animal snorted -and tugged at the tether as if scenting some invisible approach through -the woods, at the edge of which the three had been passing the night. - -Billy and Henri were on their feet in an instant, rubbing their eyes -and trying to locate by sight or sound among the trees or elsewhere in -the shadowy landscape the cause of Bon Ami’s disturbed action. - -Even if the boys had suddenly made up their minds to run to cover, they -would not have had time to go very far, for in the instant a scout -troop rode out of the woods and straight at them. - -The cavalrymen spread in fan shape, and in a moment Billy, Henri and -Bon Ami were completely surrounded. - -In good but gruff English the ranking officer of the troop commanded: -“Come here and give an account of yourselves.” - -Billy and Henri made haste to obey, and looking up at the officer -on horseback offered their smartest imitation of a military salute. -Peering down at them the cavalryman exclaimed: - -“So help me, they’re mere boys. Who let you out, my fine kiddies, at -this top of the morning? Here, Ned,” calling to one of the nearest -troopers, “bring the hot milk and the porridge.” - -Billy was becoming slightly nettled at this banter. He had no desire to -be taken seriously, but yet not quite so lightly. - -“I am an American citizen, sir, traveling, with my friend, on personal -business.” - -“Will you listen at that now?” laughed the cavalryman whom the first -officer had called “Ned.” - -“Do you know or have you thought that ‘personal business’ is just now -rather a drug on the market in these parts?” - -The chief was again addressing the boys, or, rather, Billy, who had -elected himself spokesman. - -“It does appear that the soldiers have the right of way here,” admitted -Billy, “but we came in such a hurry that we couldn’t stop to inquire in -particular about the rules.” - -“That’s a pretty good horse you have.” It was light enough now for the -officer to take in the fine points of Bon Ami. “Where did you get him?” - -Billy explained the circumstances. - -“Well, you are plucky ones,” commented the officer. “Now,” he -continued, assuming again the tone of command, “saddle your steed and -fall in.” - -The troop wheeled back toward the north and the boys rode stirrup to -stirrup with the bluff captain. - -At the noon hour the riders reached the field working quarters of the -British commander. A small headquarters guard lounged on the grass -around the farmhouse that sheltered the general and his staff, a dozen -automobiles and motorcycles were at hand and grooms were leading about -the chargers of the officers. - -The scout troop halted at a respectful distance and dismounted. - -“Put on your best manners,” suggested the troop captain as he preceded -the boys in quickstep to headquarters. - -After a brief conference with an orderly, the boys were ushered into -the presence of several officers in fatigue uniform seated at a table -littered with papers. At the head of the table was a ruddy-faced man, -clean-shaven, with iron-gray hair, to whom all heads bent in deference. - -“We have visitors, I see.” The general’s tone and manner were kindly. - -The boys stood speechless, their eyes fixed upon the little Maltese -badge of honor suspended from the left breast of the general’s coat by -a crimson ribbon. It was the Victoria Cross! - - - - -CHAPTER XII. WITH THE BRITISH ARMY. - - -“Now, my young men,” said the general, speaking briskly and to the -point, “what are you doing here, where are you going, and is there -anything else you wish to say?” - -As Billy had not as yet opened his mouth, he thought the general was -rather ahead of his questions in the last quoted particular. - -“Allow me, general, to introduce Mr. Trouville, a native of France, who -only lacks the years to vote in America. He has the desire, I assure -you. As for myself, I am William Thomas Barry of Maine, United States -of America, known as Billy--and together we are known as the Aviator -Boys. We are in the flying trade, and with your kind permission we -would like to fly now.” - -The officers observed the boys with new interest. The London _Times_ -had some months ago printed the experiences of a prominent English -visitor to America, who had seen these young aërialists in some of -their sky-scraping exhibits, and had even taken a short flight with -Billy. - -“We military fellows are all great for aviation--it’s a big card in -this war game”--this observation from the member of staff seated -nearest the general--a thoroughbred sort of man who also wore the -badge of valor. “And more than that,” he added, “I have a boy of my own -in the flying corps of the army.” - -It occurred to Billy that this officer might care to hear the sad story -of the death flight of the British youth that they had witnessed on the -shores of the North Sea. - -Billy, in real dramatic style, described the thrilling incident. There -was no lack of attention on the part of his listeners; especially did -the man who looked like a thoroughbred seem lost to everything else but -the tale the boy was so earnestly telling. When Billy produced from the -inside pocket of his blouse the photograph and ring that he had taken -from the heart pocket and finger of the dead aviator there was strained -silence, first broken by the man who had been most intent as a listener. - -“It was my boy, my own son!” - -This man who had faced shot and shell with never a tremor on many a -blackened battlefield, and had won the magic initials “V. C.” after his -name, bowed his head in grief and not ashamed of the sob in his throat. - -“Some day, God willing,” he softly said to Billy, “you shall guide his -mother and me to that resting place.” - -A bugle call outside aroused the officers to the grim business of the -hour. The roar of another battle would soon be on. - -The general turned the boys over to the care of a veteran soldier, a -sergeant, with strict orders that they should not be allowed to leave -the rear of the brigade about to advance. - -Billy and Henri, however, had the opportunity of observing during -their first actual army experience, even though of the rear guard, the -striking device of a French officer in order to steady his men, in an -infantry regiment, called upon for the first time to face the discharge -of German shells. For a moment the men hesitated, and even made a -slight movement of withdrawal. Instantly the officer seemed to have -taken in the situation. The boys heard him shout: - -“Halt! Order arms!” - -Then, quite coolly, he turned his back upon the enemy--for the first -and last time--whipped out his camera, called upon his men not to move, -and proceeded to take a leisurely snapshot of his company while shells -were falling all around. - -The men were astonished, but the officer’s purpose was served. The -company was steadied, and the boys, from the top of a supply wagon, -watched them go gallantly to work. Sad to relate, the watchers also -saw the gallant officer fall soon afterward, struck on the head by a -fragment of shell. - -“I tell you, General Sherman was right in what he said about war.” -Billy was very positive in this expression of opinion. - -On that day of fearful fighting the boys saw an entire German regiment -perish in the rush of water which swept through the trenches after the -Allies had destroyed the dikes; they saw hundreds of men and horses -electrocuted on the heavily charged wire entanglements before the -trenches. - -At nightfall Billy and Henri, heartsick with the horror of it all, -crawled under the wagon cover and fought nightmares through the long -hours before another day. - -It was raining in torrents when the boys peeped through the tear in the -wagon shelter early the next morning, and it had turned sharply cold. -The roar of the batteries had slackened for the time being, and it was -a welcome moment for Billy and Henri, who on the day previous had heard -more gunpowder racket than ever they did on all the Fourths of July -they had ever known rolled into one. - -Stepping out gingerly into the mud, the boys looked around for their -friendly guardian, Sergeant Scott. He was nowhere to be seen among the -few soldiers in khaki uniforms and woolen caps moving about among the -wagons. They soon learned that the sergeant had made a capture during -the night of one of the enemy’s secret agents who had penetrated the -lines for the purpose of cutting telephone wires. The spy or sniper -carried cutters and a rifle. From behind the lines with the rifle he -had been shooting at men passing to and fro, but when he ventured -inside with the cutters the sergeant nabbed him, though the invader -was cleverly disguised in British outfit. Both captor and captive were -up-field at an “interview,” from which only the sergeant returned. - -When he observed the boys shivering in their tracks, Sergeant Scott -called to a teamster to fetch a blanket from one of the wagons. -Borrowing a knife from the teamster, the sergeant slashed the big army -blanket in two in the middle, doubled each fold and made two slits in -the top. - -“Jump into these, my Jackies,” he ordered; “shove your arms through. -Now you won’t catch a frog in your lungs, and you’re swell enough -to make a bet on the races. Come along and tighten your belts with -something in the way of rations.” - -The boys needed no second bidding, and their belts were very snug when -they had finished. - -“By the way,” confided the sergeant, “Colonel Bainbridge has taken a -heap of interest in you youngsters. His son, I heard, lost his life in -one of those flying machines.” - -“Yes, we were the ones that told him about it. He’s sure a grand man,” -added Billy. - -“Well,” continued the sergeant, “there are some of us going to work -around toward Lille and the River Lys region to assist in extension of -the Allies’ line there. If Colonel Bainbridge commands the movement, -between ‘you and I and the gate-post,’ yours truly wants to go ’long.” - -“So do we!” The boys spoke as one. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. THE BOYS UNDER FIRE. - - -Colonel Bainbridge did command, and Sergeant Scott, Billy Barry and -Henri Trouville went along. - -“I wish they would let us ride Bon Ami.” - -Billy had noted the handsome horse they had captured prancing along -carrying a heavyweight cavalryman, while Henri and himself were perched -beside a teamster on the front seat of a supply wagon. - -“Maybe they were afraid that you would run away,” drawled the teamster. -“Sergeant Scott says you’re too skittish to turn loose.” - -“The sergeant will be putting handcuffs on us next,” laughed Billy. - -The teamster set his teeth in a plug of tobacco, snapped the whiplash -over the big bay team and with a twinkle in his eye started the verse -of some soldier ditty: - - “‘Said Colonel Malone to the sergeant bold, - These are the traps I give you to hold, - If they are gone when I come back - You’re just the boy I’ll put on the rack.’” - -“That’s just it,” added the teamster, changing from song to the usual -drawl, “if the sergeant lets you come to harm the colonel would cut the -stripes from his coat. And what’s more the sergeant is kind of struck -on you himself. Git-ap,”--to the horses. - -It was at the crossing of the Lys at Warneton that the boys had another -baptism of fire. - -The crossing was strongly held by the Germans with a barricade -loopholed at the bottom to enable the men to fire while lying down. The -Allies’ cavalry, with the artillery, blew the barricade to pieces and -scattered the defenders. - -In the square of the town the boys saw the greatest display of -fireworks that ever dazzled their young eyes. - -One of the buildings appeared to leap skyward. A sheet of flame and a -shower of star shells at the same time made the place as light as day. - -Out of the surrounding houses the Germans poured a terrific fire from -rifles and machine guns. - -The Allies’ cavalry got away with a loss of eight or nine men, and -Sergeant Scott headed volunteers that went back and carried away -wounded comrades from this dreadful place. - -Billy and Henri rushed at the sergeant when he returned from this -daring performance and joined hands in a sort of war dance around their -hero. - -“The Victoria Cross for yours, old top!” cried Billy. - -“You ought to have it this minute!” echoed Henri. - -“Quit your jabber, you chatterboxes,” said the big sergeant playfully, -shaking his fist at his admirers, but it could be plainly seen that he -was mightily pleased with the demonstration. - -“You and I will have to do something to keep up with this man,” -remarked Billy to Henri, with a mock bow to the sergeant. - -“None of that,” growled the sergeant, “your skylarking doesn’t go on -the ground, and not on this ground, anyhow.” - -But the boys had grown tired of being just in the picture and not in -its making. - -“The sergeant doesn’t seem to think that we have ever crossed a danger -line the way he coddles us.” Billy was ready for argument on this point. - -“Wish we had him up in the air a little while,” said Henri, “he -wouldn’t be so quick to dictate.” - -It was in this mood, during the advance and on the night of the next -day, that the boys eluded the vigilant eye of the sergeant long enough -to attempt a look around on their own account. - -In the dark they stumbled on the German trenches. - -Billy grasped Henri’s arm and they turned and made for the British -lines, as fast as their legs could carry them, but the fire directed at -them was so heavy that they had to throw themselves on the ground and -crawl. - -There was no cover at hand, and the chances looked mighty desperate for -the pair, when Billy saw, close by, an enormous hole in the ground, -made by the explosion of a “black maria,” the name given by the -soldiers to the projectiles of the big German howitzers. - -Into this the boys scrambled, panting and scared to the limit. - -“Wouldn’t this jar you?” - -Henri had no answer to Billy’s quickfire query. He didn’t think it -required any just then. He was “jarred,” in the way the word was used. - -“It’s a pretty pickle we’re in,” Henri managed to say when a shell -screamed over the hole. - -“It sure is,” admitted Billy, as a round-shot scattered dust particles -and showered them into the hiding place. - -“‘We won’t go home till morning,’” this warble by Henri, a rather -feeble attempt to be gay. - -“Maybe you won’t go home at all,” was the gloomy expression of opinion -by Billy. - -“I wonder if the sergeant has missed us yet?” Henri was wondering. - -The ground was shaking and then a sound as though the earth was being -hammered with ten thousand clubs in as many giant hands. - -In the early dawn the Allies were charging the German entrenchments. - -The howitzers thundered; battle cries and commands resounded. - -The Allies’ forces whirled by and on both sides of the underground -shelter where the boys were crouching. - -With the clash of arms behind them Billy and Henri clambered out of the -hole and spurted for dear life and safety. - -When the troopers came back from the fight, the sergeant, with heavy -stride, came to the wagon into which the boys had crawled. - -“Come out of there,” he commanded. - -The boys instantly obeyed and in sheepish manner presented themselves -to the severely erect soldier. - -“You’ll be buried without the benefit of a preacher if you try another -trick like that.” This was all the sergeant said, but he looked -daggers. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. IN AN ARMORED MOTOR CAR. - - -On the way to Arras the boys had their first experience aboard an -armored motor car, equipped with machine guns. Quite a promotion from -the teamster’s seat of a supply wagon! - -How the sergeant ever consented to let his charges join the crew of -Belgians operating the war machine is not known. Perhaps he was not -told until it was too late to object. - -But there they were, Billy and Henri, as large as life, out “Uhlan -hunting,” as the soldiers put it. The boys knew that a Uhlan was a kind -of light cavalry, or lancer, in the German army, and they had heard -that he was “game,” but never before in the sense of game to be hunted. - -As for that, hardly a day passed but the boys learned something new -from the soldiers. - -But a short time before at La Bassee they had seen one of these armored -cars return from a dash ahead of the main body loaded with spoils in -the shape of lancer caps, busbies, helmets, lances, rifles, and other -trophies, which the crew distributed as souvenirs to a crowd in the -market place. - -The next day one of the cars that went out never came back. The Uhlans -probably took it for a trophy. - -Whenever you see a splendid piece of tapestry or hangings displayed -in a window, museum, or house, you may think of Arras, the little old -town on the right bank of the narrow little river Scarpe, right in the -center of the line of battle between Lille and Amiens, and remember -that our boys were now following that line in France. - -From the armored car the boys in the distance saw that famous old -belfry, said to be 240 feet high, rising gracefully above the town -hall, and on top of which was a huge crown. A day later this tower was -wrecked by a shell in furious bombardment. - -During this journey in the armored car the boys were filled with -admiration of the dash and skill displayed by the Belgian crew. They -were also greatly interested in the hardy cyclists, who apparently -without effort kept up with the pace of the big machine. In some of the -villages through which they passed, the inhabitants met the cyclists -with kisses, in some of the roads the cyclists met barricades and -machine guns. - -“If a doctor told you that you needed change to help your health, -Henri, you can write him that you’re getting it.” - -Billy was finding this new war game very much to his liking. - -“You’ll have word from the doctor without writing,” retorted Henri, “if -you don’t quit standing up in the car.” - -Even then bullets were whizzing past them. The car had suddenly come -upon a small party of the German mounted troops, firing with short-arms -from the saddle. - -The Belgian gunners instantly responded from the car and swept the road. - -“On to Arras!” - -Billy made the grim soldiers smile with his enthusiasm. - -When the car rolled into the quaint old town of Arras, the boys -confessed that they had never seen quite the like of it before. - -“There’s a building that I’d like to move to Bangor,” said Billy, -pointing to the Hotel de Ville, one of the finest in France, with its -Gothic façade rising upon seven arches of different sizes. - -“There’s a lot of rare old houses here, I tell you,” asserted Henri, -“but I never saw them until now, except on postcards. By the way, -Billy, take a look at those and think of the days of Christopher -Columbus.” - -Henri referred to the Petite place and the Grande place, curious relics -of the long gone days of Spanish rule, with their queer gables and old -arcades resting on curiously shaped sand-stone columns. - -“This is the town, you know,” advised Henri, “where Robespierre was -born.” - -“Humph! This war has kicked up a bigger muss in France than ‘Roby’ ever -did.” - -Billy was not inclined to concede that anything had ever created a stir -ahead of that in which he was mixing. - -The stir of the next day was, indeed, something to be remembered. Some -of the biggest of the German guns were brought into action. - -Billy and Henri had been napping, and never were naps more rudely -disturbed. - -Shells from the great guns used by the bombarding forces had a way of -starting on their course with a minute-long shriek, which seemed to -come from the shell itself. When the boys’ eyes had been cleared from -sleep they could not only plainly see the projectiles in the beginning -of their flight, but also distinctly observe the bellowing air rushing -back to fill the vacancy left by the discharge and bounding and -rebounding in a disturbed sea of gas. - -“What a sight!” cried Billy when the first period of nervous strain had -passed. - -“Something fierce.” Henri’s comment was boy-like. - -The boys were pacing in one of the antique streets with fragments of -wood and chips of stone falling about them when they heard a shout, -followed down the avenue by the shouter. It was the sergeant rattling -like a milk wagon with his military fixings. - -“Hustle, you young bearcats; get to cover!” - -With that the sergeant yanked each boy by the shoulder into a hospital -building nearby. - -“Here’s help for you,” said the sergeant to one of the Red Cross -nurses. “Keep them busy, and,” he added with especial emphasis, -“inside.” - -That gentle nurse, a young English girl, the boys learned afterward, -was struck by a shell and carried dying on a litter from a battlefield -where she had been attending the wounded. Her name was Winnie Bell, -and she rests in the cemetery at Le Mans, with the bodies of French -and German soldiers around her, in whose service she gave up her noble -young life. - -The boys moved about with the nurse among the wounded, constantly -growing in number. - -“Oh! the pity of it all,” she murmured, putting a cup of water to the -quivering lips of a sufferer, a mere lad, wearing the brilliant uniform -of a French trooper, with a gaping wound in his shoulder. - -Henri, leaning forward to give the nurse a bandage from the packet he -was carrying, caught sight of the soldier’s upturned face. - -“My brother Francois!” he moaned, dropping on his knees beside the -litter. - -The wounded soldier opened his eyes, and the agony of his hurt did not -keep him from smiling. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. FAREWELL TO FRANCOIS. - - -“You’re feeling better now; I know you are; really, you must say that, -Francois. I can’t bear to see you lying there so still and so white.” - -Henri hovered about the cot of his wounded brother after the surgeon -had dressed and bandaged the injured shoulder. - -He had forgotten the war storm that raged outside, and even for the -moment ceased to remember that his dearest chum, Billy, was ever at his -elbow with ready sympathy. - -“Tell me, Francois,” Henri pleaded, “that you are going to get well.” - -“Of course he is,” assured a mild voice from the foot of the cot, “but -you must come away and give him a chance to sleep.” - -“Sleep! With all that roar outside?” - -“Perhaps, my boy, the surgeon gave him something that would tend to -quiet him. You must calm yourself, and remember that you have your duty -with me. He did his duty without fear or question. Are you less a man -than your brother?” - -The nurse well knew how to manage in a case of this kind. She had -tested the metal of a proud young spirit, in the full belief that it -would ring true. - -“Come along now,” she gently urged. “Let me show you that thought of -self does not fit here.” - -They stood at the cot side of a mortally wounded Belgian soldier. - -“We found a letter in his pocket,” softly voiced the nurse, “saying -that he was enclosing a pair of shoes for his three-year-old baby with -the money he had earned as a scout in King Albert’s army. Here are the -little shoes,” lying on the covering sheet. - -Billy felt like he was choking, and Henri simply lifted the border of -the nurse’s apron to his lips. - -It was several days before Henri obtained permission to talk with his -brother. There was so much to talk about that the few minutes allowed -were as so many seconds. - -“But I’ve news from mother!” confided Henri to Billy--“she was all -right when Francois last saw her in Paris, and she got the word I sent -her about my going to the château, and why I was going. It was Francois -who wrote me about the gold and jewels being left behind. Mother tried -to get word to me not to take the risk; she said that more than all -else she wanted me to come straight to her if I could. It makes me -ashamed to see Jules and Francois under the colors and I without, but -I’ve made up my mind to do this thing I have set out to do, and I’ll -stick until it is finished.” - -“You can count me in to the finish, Buddy. You stick to the job and you -can safely bet that I’ll stick to you.” - -“Don’t I know that, my truest of friends?” - -Henri gave Billy a hand-squeeze that made that husky youngster wince. - -Francois was rapidly regaining strength, his wound nicely healing, and, -with the progress, his interest in Henri’s mission to the Meuse was -first in mind. - -“In my letter,” he said to Henri, “I feared to give details that might -be read by other eyes than yours. You only would know even the name -and location of our house by that letter. But I got it all right from -mother about the secret hiding place of the fortune. - -“Neither Jules, you, nor I had ever learned of the more than -a century-old plan of the Château Trouville, handed down by a -great-grandfather, which included an underground way from the hills -through the valley and ending in the north wing of the château. - -“Mother herself had almost forgotten that such a place was in existence -until she recalled that some thirty years ago our father gave her what -he jokingly called a honeymoon trip through the tunnel, and she also -recalled that it was a journey which she never repeated. She spoiled a -new dress going through. - -“Of course, you and I know that the old house itself is full of queer -corners, walks between the walls, panel openings and all that; we -played hide-and-seek there enough, but the outside passage we never -struck. Father might have told us about it if he had lived.” - -“I suppose the tunnel came in handy when old times were squally,” -suggested Henri. - -“Never handier, I think, than it may be to you if you ever get within -a mile of what you are going after,” replied Francois; “you will never -get in by the front door the way things are now.” - -“Wish you would go along with Billy and me.” - -“Not I. I travel only under orders. I am a soldier. You are still your -own master. Now, while you are here, ask nurse to hand you my coat, if -there is anything left of it.” - -“Ah, thank you, nurse.” - -“Feel in the lining back of the breast pocket, Henri. That’s it. Cut -the seam, brother. There you are.” - -Henri held in his hand a thin roll of paper. - -“Open it.” - -Henri did as directed and saw that it was a miniature map, lined with -red ink. - -With their heads together the brothers studied the outlines, Francois -explaining that he made this copy from a section of the original -parchment. - -“Jules has a copy, too,” continued Francois, “but he is in the same -boat with me--he can’t quit his post. As I said before, it’s up to you -and your friend to get the family treasure out of the château. If you -can get near enough, this paper will show you the way to get in and out -unseen, even if the house be full of soldiers.” - -Henri borrowed needle and thread from the nurse and sewed the paper -inside the collar of his blouse. - -A week later the sergeant informed the boys that marching orders had -been given, and they were to move with a detachment to the southwest. - -“Going our way, hurrah!” - -Henri then remembered that this meant parting from his brother, and was -less inclined to rejoice when this sad thought came to his mind. - -Francois was seated near one of the low windows of the hospital -building, enjoying the bright sunlight that shone through the open -casement. - -He had a smile in his eyes when he saw Henri, with knapsack on his -back, approaching. - -“I know it’s good-by, brother,” he said. “But take it easy, old boy. -We’ll have a grand reunion some day.” - -Henri lovingly clasped the free hand of the young soldier, in silent -farewell, bravely squared his shoulders and marched away to join Billy -and the sergeant, waiting at the door. - -A bugle sounded and the soldier column swung away from war-torn Arras. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. THE VALLEY OF THE MEUSE. - - -From a hillside the boys looked upon and over the great battlefield -where the German army was then trying to break through the line of -barrier forts between Verdun and Toul and the opposing French forces. - -In front lay the level valley of the Meuse, with the towns of St. -Mihiel and Bannoncour nestling upon the green landscape. - -Beyond and behind the valley rose a tier of hills on which the French -were then striving with all their might to hold an intrenched position. - -Bursting shells were throwing up columns of white or black fog, and -cloudlets of white smoke here and there showed where a position was -under shrapnel fire. - -The sergeant had presented the boys with a high-powered field glass, -and to their delight they picked out an occasional aëroplane hovering -over the lines. - -“Look at that little snapper,” cried Billy; “that’s a French wasp; -it’s smaller and lighter than our kind; they call it the ‘peasant’s -terror.’ Gee! Seventy-five miles an hour is nothing to that plane.” - -“The aviator is giving signals!” - -Henri had his eyes glued to the glass. - -“Looks like a hawk circling around a chick.” - -Billy was again taking his turn. - -“He’d better climb quick.” - -Henri noted that some of the big mortars were trying for the airman, -and he had learned that these mortars could throw a shell a mile or -more in the air. - -The aviator evidently was aware of the fact, too, for he went higher -and higher, until the machine looked like a mere scratch in the sky. - -The boys returned to the trenches with Rene Granger, a lad of eighteen, -who had enlisted, he said, at Lorraine, and who had already won the -rank of corporal in a French regiment. - -The three were together when the colonel of Rene’s regiment called -for a volunteer to carry the orders of the staff to the different -companies. The colonel did not conceal the fact that the mission was -one of great danger. The young corporal stepped forward, and offered -his service. He listened attentively to the colonel’s instructions. -Then with a quiet _c’est bien_ (it is well), he started. - -The boys saw him reach the first trench in safety and deliver his -message. - -The next stage of his journey was a dangerous one, for he had to pass -over an open space of 300 yards, swept by the enemy’s fire. He went -down on his hands and knees and crawled, only lifting his head in order -to see his way. - -Within a few yards of the trenches a bullet struck him in the thigh. He -crept behind a tree, hastily dressed the wound, then dragged himself to -the trench, where he delivered his message to the commander. - -They tried to stop him there, but the boy refused. - -“I have given my word,” he said. - -There remained still two companies to visit. One of them was quite -near, but the other was 600 yards away, far advanced in the zone of -fire. - -Rene began his terrible journey. At every few yards he was compelled to -stop, so fierce was the suffering caused by his wound. Bullets whistled -around him, and one pierced his kepi. - -He was within twenty yards of safety when a shell burst in front of -him and fragments struck him, inflicting a terrible wound. He lay -unconscious, but he had been seen from the trenches and two ambulance -men ran out, placed him on a stretcher, and carried him to their -company. - -Rene became conscious once more, called for the commanding officer, and -almost with his last breath whispered the orders he had been given. - -“Oh, that he could have lived!” - -Henri could scarcely realize that their new-found friend, their cheery -companion of the past few days, was cold in death. But they brought him -back to his regiment, in scarred body, for honor. - -“He kept his word,” said the colonel, who turned away that none might -see what a soldier must hide. - -“There’s a boy that was all gold; I am grateful for having known him, -and better for it, too; he knew how to live and how to die.” - -This was Billy’s brief but heartfelt tribute to the memory of their -fallen comrade. - -But our boys must push on to their goal, and though their story must be -seamed and crossed by these woes of war, yet it is their story. - -“Château Chantillon still stands, and there is Château Chambley, and -there, yes, there, is Château Trouville--my home.” - -Henri was drawing the distance close with the powerful field glass, and -talking over his shoulder to Billy. - -“With a wall of steel around them,” commented Billy. - -“But we are going to get through it,” was Henri’s determined reply. - -“Speed the day!” - -Billy was ready for the effort. Besides, he had been thinking a good -deal about Bangor in the last few days. - -“If those old guns over there,” said Henri, “would only let us alone -until we found the mouth of that tunnel it’s a sure thing that we could -be under the roof of the Trouvilles in less than two hours.” - -“Maybe the old map’s no good.” - -Billy never had been much of a hand for ancient history. - -“If it’s all the same to you, we’ll give it a test to-morrow night.” - -Henri did not take kindly to Billy’s unbelief. - -“If we can get away from the sergeant, I will be at your heels,” -announced Billy, and he meant every word of it. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. THE POINT OF ROCKS. - - -The French and allied forces were located in a range of wooded hills -running north and south along the east bank of the Meuse. They had -fortified steeply terraced slopes with successive rows of trenches, -permitting line above line of infantry to fire against an advancing -enemy. - -At the foot of the hillside is the village of Vignueilles, a little -stone-built town that had been shot into ruins by artillery. A boy -from this village, who had taken refuge with the soldiers on the high -ground, found a former playmate when he met Henri. This boy’s father -had once been employed as a gardener by the Trouvilles. - -As Billy said, “they jabbered French until they made him tired.” - -The new friend had the given name of Joseph, but Henri called him -“Reddy.” Billy called him a “muff,” because he could not understand -half that the new boy said. - -But Joseph, or Reddy, by any name was just now a tower of strength, -even if the tower was only five feet three inches up from the ground. - -As Leon, the little Belgian, served at Ypres, so Reddy was going to -prove a big help in the adventure at hand. - -He had chased rabbits into almost every hole in these hills, and in -the woods he could travel even beyond the German frontier by as many -different routes as he counted fingers on his hands. - -Billy, Henri and Reddy were in close conference all day, so quiet, -and so cautious, for the once, in their movements, that the sergeant -wavered between suspicion and anxiety, the first because he thought his -charges must be up to something, and the second for the reason that he -feared they were going to be ill. - -He might have imagined relief from anxiety by thinking the boys were -tremendously hungry had he seen their frequent trips during the day to -the places where provisions were stored. - -Had he seen them, however, taking several small safety lanterns from -the ammunition department, suspicion would have stood first in his mind. - -“The tunnel begins at a point 500 yards directly west of Fort Les -Paroches, and it is called ‘point of rocks,’” Henri reading the notes -and following with a pin point the lines of the little map that -Francois had given him. - -The mentioned fort had been silenced only the day before by German -mortars, and its location was now marked by a huge mound of black, -plowed up earth. - -“That’s only three miles from here.” - -Reddy was eager to show his knowledge of the neighborhood. - -Henri passed Reddy’s statements on to Billy in English. - -“‘Bowlders laid in the form of a cross show the place of entrance,’” -Henri continuing to read. - -“‘Stone slab at foot of cross. Remove stone and find iron ring in oak -cover. Lift cover and find stone steps.’” - -“Seems simple enough if we had a derrick.” - -Billy was still doubtful. - -“The only thing I fear,” said Henri, paying no attention to Billy’s -pert remark, “is that with time the markings may be wiped out by -changes of earth formation, forest growth or the like.” - -“No,” quickly advised Reddy, “if it’s the place that I’ve seen there -are still a lot of rocks there.” - -“I suppose you could find the place for us, couldn’t you, Reddy?” asked -Henri. - -“Yes! Yes!” - -Reddy was on his feet to furnish proof without further delay. - -“We can get there through the ravine,” he was in a hurry to add. - -“When the sergeant goes to inspect the outposts, then, let’s make the -break.” - -Billy was catching the spirit of the occasion. - -So it was while good Sergeant Scott was performing a military duty the -boys shouldered their well filled knapsacks, and, with Reddy leading, -in the dusk succeeded in eluding the sentry first in the way. - -The cunning of Reddy as a woodsman was wonderfully shown by the manner -in which he took to the brush and the way he avoided notice. It seemed -hardly any time at all before the boys were silently picking their way, -shadow-like, in the depths of the pitch-dark ravine. - -They had heard no challenge until Billy planted his foot on a fallen -twig, which cracked like a pistol shot. - -“Who goes there?” - -Sharp question, in French, from above. - -Down went the boys flat on the ground, concealed by overhanging bushes. - -The sentry repeated the challenge. - -All as silent as the grave. - -The boys scarcely breathed. They knew the guard was one of the allied -forces, but yet they had no desire to take issue with him. Even if he -only turned them back to quarters their chances of getting away again -would be few and far between. The sergeant would see to that. - -Some ten minutes passed. It seemed longer to the truants in the ravine. - -Then, as if satisfied that the noise was without menace, the sentry -resumed his pace, and the boys flitted on as if shod with velvet. - -The path took an upward turn, and Reddy nudged his companions to a halt. - -“We’re there,” he whispered. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. AT THE MOUTH OF THE TUNNEL. - - -“We’re on some good old fighting ground,” remarked Henri, who was well -versed in history relating to the country around Château Trouville. -“The Roman legions held forth here centuries ago.” - -“They would not have ‘held forth’ any great while under that German -fire the other day.” - -Billy was not far wrong on that proposition. - -The boys were doing this talking while Reddy was lighting the lanterns. -These lanterns were bull’s-eyes, and could be turned dark in an instant. - -There was no shelling of this spot that night, for there was not enough -of the fort left to make a target, and the trenches were attracting all -the fire. - -The boys could proceed with their work with some degree of safety. - -Reddy painfully located the rocky point by falling over a big stone in -the dark, the boys having decided to go it blind until they actually -had to use the lights. - -“You haven’t broken a leg, have you, Reddy?” Henri anxiously inquired. - -“No, I guess not,” was Reddy’s reply, “but I think I’ve kicked a toe -loose, anyhow.” - -The boys switched the masks off their lanterns and three slender bars -of light danced among the stones. - -“Don’t see any cross.” - -“Be patient, Billy,” urged Henri, “we haven’t been here five minutes -yet.” - -For the next hour the boys circled around the place without finding a -trace of the markings described in the map. - -Billy and Henri sat down to rest, but Reddy, who seemed never to tire, -continued to explore on his own account. He walked over to the ruins of -the fort, and began to measure, by taking long steps, on a line some -distance from the point where the boys had been searching for the cross. - -Suddenly Reddy stopped. Billy and Henri could see that the ball of -light in his lantern had quit moving. - -“Wonder if he has found anything?” Henri jumped at the prospect. - -“Nothing like going to see,” and Billy with the words was off like a -shot. - -Sure enough, Reddy had struck a warm trail. All of the cross was not -under his feet, but there was sufficient outline to show sections of -the original design. Some of the stones had shifted away, but there, -beyond doubt, was that for which the boys were looking. - -The lantern rays were all directed to the foot of the outline, that is, -the end of the longest row of bowlders. - -The directions had read: “Stone slab at foot of cross.” - -The boys bent to their knees and with faces close to the earth. - -“There’s a corner of it!” - -Reddy was making all the discoveries. - -Billy and Henri commenced clawing the dirt like hungry chickens. Reddy -stood up and used his feet to better advantage. This combined effort -was rewarded by a clear view of the slab. - -It was there, and Billy could not now deny it. - -“Remove stone and find iron ring in oak cover.” - -But how were the boys to “remove” that stone? Reddy had a lightning -thought. All his thoughts came that way. - -Away he went, chasing the lantern ray ahead of him. In that heap of -crumpled earth and stone, lately Fort Les Paroches, there was surely -something in the way of iron or steel out of which to make a stone -lifter. - -Reddy was back in a few minutes dragging not only one but two steel -bars which had been knocked like nine-pins from their fastenings. - -“Here’s levers for you,” he announced gleefully. - -Billy saw what he had, even if he did not understand what he said. - -Henri and Billy with the bar-points punched holes at the side of the -slab and got a purchase. Then they pried with all their strength. At -first the slab did not budge an inch. - -Reddy added his weight to one of the bars and the slab was loosened in -its setting. - -“Now another heave!” panted Billy. - -“Up she comes!” said Henri. - -The slab was lifted high enough to give a chance for shoulder pressure, -and the rest was easy, for when once out of its setting the stone had -no great weight. - -The lanterns revealed the fact that the workers had been rightly -directed up to the minute. - -The oak cover was there, and also the iron ring. Through this ring the -boys shoved the bars and pulled the cover away from the opening. - -The stone steps were there; somewhat crumbly, but there. The directions -were verified to the finish. - -“Don’t rush in there until you give the fresh air a chance to go first.” - -Reddy knew a lot of things that he had never learned from books. - -But now it was Henri who was getting impatient. - -“It ought not to take long for the tunnel to clear, and, what’s more, -we are going to get out of sight before daylight.” - -Daylight was rapidly approaching. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. THROUGH THE SECRET PASSAGE. - - -“It’s me first this time,” declared Henri. “I’m on the way home, -and it’s the duty of this son of my mother to open the door for our -guests.” - -“You bluffer, you,” said Billy, “what you want is to take the first -risk of going into that hole. I know you.” - -Henri did not stop to argue. He cat-footed it down the stone steps, -holding his lantern in front of him at arm’s length. - -Billy came next, and Reddy last. The last boy, however, was not the -least when it came to thinking. He thought that it would be a good -idea to fix the oak cover so that he could support it with his hands -and let it drop again over the opening when the three should have gone -underground. - -It would give a chance prowler no opportunity to find the mouth of the -tunnel, and either follow them or set up an alarm that would result in -the boys being caught like rats in a trap. - -So Reddy wisely closed the way behind them, and thus insured that there -would be no disturbance from the rear. - -The tunnel route was not an inviting one. The rounded roof in many -places had sagged and closed in to such an extent as to almost choke -the passage, and great care had to be taken by the boys so as not -to bring a mass of stonework and earth down upon their heads. This -dangerous condition was chiefly where the tunnel ran through the low -ground, for when the passageway began to ascend the boys were enabled -to go much faster and in greater safety. - -But in the tunnel entire the air was stifling and from the cracks in -the slimy walls came hideous crawling things. - -It was fully an hour before the boys had any assurance that the tunnel -really did have an end. - -This assurance was a heavily grated door set in solid masonry. - -“Now we are done,” was Billy’s despairing prediction. - -“Never say quit; that isn’t like you.” - -It was seldom that Henri assumed the rôle of bracer-up to Billy. It had -been generally the other way, but Billy was willing to acknowledge that -he was not much of a cave man. He liked the open too well. - -There were faint streaks of daylight threading through the grated -spaces of the door. That was something for which to be thankful. - -Reddy was giving the rusty grating a lively shake when with a clang -something hit the stone floor of the tunnel. - -It was a key of the kind that locksmiths used to make by the pound. - -The key had been suspended from a hook at the side of the door, and -Reddy’s vigorous attack on the grating had caused it to fall. - -Henri pushed the key into the ponderous lock and with a strong-arm -twist succeeded in making it turn. The rusty bolt screeched as it was -drawn back, but the door could be opened, and it was opened by the -main pulling strength of three husky youngsters. - -Just on the other side of the door was the rounded base of a tower, -and, looking upward, the sky could be seen through many openings in the -stonework. - -There were four doors in this circular room, the one by which the -boys had just entered, and the other three in a row, close together, -directly opposite the tunnel entrance. - -“This,” explained Henri, “is ‘Old Round Tower,’ far more ancient than -the château itself, and one of the landmarks along the Meuse. I never -cared much for it myself as a play place; it was too gloomy, and rats -used to swarm here. I remember of seeing this door to the tunnel, but -always thought it led to some cellar, and cellars are no novelties on -these grounds. I don’t know how many casks of wine are underground -about here, but there used to be a big lot. - -“This door,” Henri was pointing to the middle one in the row, “opens -on a passage that runs back of the state dining-hall of the château, -and ends at a panel on the right of the most beautifully decorated -fireplace you ever saw. - -“The passages behind the other doors run to the upper floors of the -north and south wings of the house. - -“There are side connections to them all in the old part of the château. -Of course, in the east and west wings, added years later, there are no -secret passages nor sliding panels.” - -“Which one leads to where the gold and jewels are kept?” - -“I’ll show you in a little while, Billy.” - -Henri pushed open the middle door of the row, and the boys had a whiff -of musty tapestry and other shut-in odors which indicated that the -passage had not been traveled for many a day. - -Through the narrow way between the walls the boys walked, single file, -leaving tracks in the dust and with many a sneeze and gasp. - -At a point where the passage widened, Henri stopped and lifted a finger. - -On the other side of the walls there was a sound of many voices, an -occasional peal of laughter, the clink of glass against glass, and -every now and then merry snatches of song. - -Henri felt along the side of the passage until his fingers touched a -little knob about level with his eyes. - -With a slight pressure on the knob a panel on the other side was -controlled and began to slide noiselessly in polished grooves to the -left. - -Henri held the movement to an inch. - -“Cast your eye in there,” speaking softly to Billy. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. BEHIND CHÂTEAU PANELS. - - -The state dining-hall of the château was serving as the breakfast room -of a French general and his numerous staff. If the uniforms worn had -not indicated to what nation these soldiers belonged, the proof was -surely in the fact that they jested and sang before breakfast. It takes -a gay lot to be jolly before breakfast. After dinner anybody might have -the notion to be merry. - -How Château Trouville had escaped destruction by the big guns of the -Germans might be accounted for by the fact that the aforesaid big -guns had been mostly employed, when not turned loose on the trenches, -in silencing French barrier forts. As a German battery lieutenant -remarked, “only forts really counted.” - -However it was, this fine French country house had not even been -scratched, as yet. - -The chatter in the dining-hall was all Greek to Billy, though Henri -and Reddy appeared to be much interested and amused by the lively -conversation. - -Reddy pointed out here and there a chasseur that he knew by name. - -“What’s the matter with us having a little breakfast ourselves?” -suggested Henri. There was plenty to eat in the knapsacks. - -Billy and Reddy had no protest to make on this proposition, but they -found it thirsty work to swallow camp rations without even a sup of -liquid. - -It so happened that a foot soldier serving as waiter passed close to -the wall, carrying a flagon filled with water. At the moment everybody -in the hall stood up in attitude of salute. The general was just coming -in to breakfast. The soldier set the flagon down near the panel; Henri -pressed the knob, making the opening wide enough for Reddy to poke an -arm through, and quick as a flash that expert young gentleman yanked -the prize through the crack, which was instantly closed by Henri. - -The boys could not see what the soldier did when he discovered his -loss, but they imagined that he must have been considerably surprised -by the mysterious disappearance of the flagon. - -The boys had not had a wink of sleep for more than twenty-four hours, -and with all their walking and the heavy work they had done at “point -of rocks” they were completely fagged. - -“Oh, for a good soft place on which to stretch, and some air that is -decent to breathe,” murmured Billy with nodding head. - -“The surest thing I know,” was Henri’s encouraging words to the -sleepy-head. “Come on, fellows.” - -Further up the passage Henri pressed another knob in the wall, and the -opening immediately created let in a veritable blaze of sunlight. - -It was a small, narrow room on the other side of this panel, but -spangled with mullioned or barred windows. - -Off this room was another apartment, longer but no wider than the -first. In this latter chamber stood a gilded bedstead under canopy. - -“Here,” said Henri, “royalty was once upon a time concealed, when it -was good for his princely health to be hidden.” - -Billy was more intent on the project of testing the bed than listening -to legends. He mussed up the rich covering to his liking and rolled -like a log, clothes and all, into the broad expanse under the canopy. -Henri and Reddy with no more ceremony followed suit, and the three went -after the record of the famous Seven Sleepers. - -It was early afternoon when a tremendous clatter of iron-shod hoofs in -the stone courtyard far below roused Reddy, who always slept with one -ear open. - -With no effort to select a favorite, Reddy applied spanks right and -left to his snoring companions. - -“Who hit me?” demanded Billy in a dream voice. - -“Where’s the trouble?” Henri was probing the covers in his haste to -reach the inside works of an imaginary aëroplane motor. - -Reddy dragged Henri out of bed by the heels, and in watching the -wrestling match that followed Billy lost the desire to turn over for -just one more nap. - -“You fellows will insult the memory of his royal nibs if you don’t -quit,” he growled. - -“There’s evidently something doing below.” - -Henri had shaken off the wiry Reddy and climbed upon one of the window -ledges. - -It was a cavalry movement, evidently, from the noise, and movement that -indicated hurry orders. - -“Perhaps the general won’t be back for dinner.” - -The good sleep had put Billy back in his usual good humor. - -“I don’t know what’s up,” admitted Henri, “but whatever it is I’m -thinking that it’s time for us to get into action before the fighters -go to pulling ears in this vicinity.” - -“In other words,” said Billy, “it’s time for us to pull up the treasure -and pull out.” - -“That’s the ticket.” - -Henri adjusted his knapsack, setting example for his comrades to get in -marching order. - -Passing out of the royal bed-chamber, the boys hastened again into the -main passageway, going further north than they had yet been in their -flittings through the concealed walks. - -Henri finally stopped over a big brass plate set in the floor. - -“It is not like moving that slab last night,” he commented, as the -plate dropped with a snap on easy hinges by some combination which -Henri well knew how to work. - -A spiral staircase was revealed, and round and round and ever downward -the boys proceeded. - -At the foot of the staircase, at the end of a short passage, the trio -were confronted by what was apparently a blank wall. - -Henri counted to himself as he passed his hands over the face of the -wall. When satisfied that his calculations were correct he called to -Billy to give him a lift. Billy promptly furnished a pair of square -shoulders, upon which Henri stood, after removing his shoes. - -Henri tapped smartly at a selected spot, a hidden spring was released -and a section of the wall fell away. - -Once astride of the cross-piece upon which the moving section had -rested, Henri lent Billy a helping hand, and Billy in turn gave Reddy, -the lightweight, a stocky leg on which to climb. - -The boys then dropped down on the other side. - -They were in the treasure house of the Trouvilles! - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. HENRI FINDS THE KEY. - - -The treasure house was a gloomy den of a place, one small, heavily -grated window, with dusty diamond-shaped panes, set high and deeply -in the wall, like a porthole, being the only means of producing light -from the outside, and even that outside a dark little court enclosed by -frowning walls. - -In possession of the safety lanterns, the boys could be considered -lucky, not only to enable them to quickly complete the task before -them, but the three fire-balls helped wonderfully in relieving the -impression of being locked up in a tomb. - -In a far corner of this dungeon was an iron-bound, oaken box of -considerable size, fastened by a heavy padlock. The discovery of the -lock presented the first difficulty not described in the paper which -Francois had given Henri. - -Billy rattled the lock by a vicious jab with the heel of his shoe, but -the effect on link and staple availed about as much as a feather in -a gale. Nothing short of dynamite, or the right key, could pass that -massive guard. - -“Did you think of this?” Billy’s query deserved top line in the useless -question column. - -“If I had do you suppose I would be standing here like a hungry man -before a baker’s window?” - -Henri was completely bowled over, as the saying is, by this hitch in -his plans, at the eleventh hour. - -Reddy had just completed an unsuccessful assault on the obstinate -padlock when Henri astonished his friends by doing some tango steps, -setting a lively tune by snapping his fingers. - -“Got it, now!” he exclaimed between shuffles. “Keep on your coats, -fellows, I’ll be back in no time.” - -With that the son of the Trouvilles jumped for the cross-piece in the -movable wall section, drew himself up with the agility of a monkey and -with equal celerity landed in the passage on the other side of the wall. - -The minutes ticked away in Billy’s watch--ten--fifteen--twenty. - -No sign of Henri. - -“I can’t stand this much longer,” muttered Billy, never taking his eyes -from the hole in the wall through which Henri had disappeared. - -Reddy tried to tell Billy in French that he would go and hunt for Henri -if he (Billy) would not mind. - -Billy did mind. He understood Reddy’s gestures if he did not fully -comprehend the language. - -“When anybody goes it will be a procession, with me in the lead.” - -He had hardly got this positive assertion out of his mouth when he -heard something scraping in the passage, followed by the living picture -of Henri framed in the opening above. Then the familiar voice: - -“It’s all right, Buddy.” - -“Just when I was thinking it was all wrong.” - -Billy lifted his hands to ease Henri’s drop from the cross-piece, and -gave him a bear hug when he landed. - -Henri rapidly gave the reasons for his delay in getting back. - -“You see, a flash of memory brought to my mind that mother kept the -keys to about everything hanging behind a portrait of father in her -bedroom. I had to go on the other side of the panel to get there--it’s -in the new part of the house, you know. - -“I did not see anybody about when I went through the fireplace into the -dining-hall. You can wager, though, that I did not lose any time in -dodging through the door to the corridor that would take me quickest to -the place for which I was bound. - -“I got there, all right; found the keys”--holding up the jingling bunch -dangling from a wire hoop--“and was making my grand get-away on the -return trip. As a matter of caution I peeped through the door of the -dining-hall before I opened it very far. Lo and behold our friend from -whom Reddy pilfered the flagon had seated himself at a table facing the -door, through the crack of which I was straining my eyes. - -“This fellow had a bottle of wine at his elbow, and a glass in his -hand. He had settled for a good time, and I had settled for an uneasy -one. - -“Directly he arose and walked slowly toward the fireplace and curiously -inspected it. Still wondering about that missing flagon, I guess. Then -he continued his stroll to the window at the far end of the hall. - -“‘This is the chance for me,’ I thought, and I bolted for the panel. -What if it stuck or wouldn’t work? Believe me, it was a scary moment. -Click, and I was through. I don’t know whether ‘red trousers’ saw me -or just heard the click of the panel spring. At any rate, I stopped -to listen a moment, and I heard him tapping here and there on the oak -around the fireplace. That fellow is sure a suspicious customer. - -“Well, here I am, and don’t let us waste any more time with this -talkfest. Turn your lantern on the padlock, Reddy.” - -Henri knelt before the treasure box, holding the jingling bunch of keys -between his eyes and the blaze of Reddy’s lantern. - -“That looks like it would fit,” selecting a short key of heavy turn. - -“But it don’t.” - -Henri made another selection, with no better success. - -“Try that one,” Reddy pointing to a rusty instrument in the bunch. - -Reddy had hit the nail on the head. - -That key turned, and the padlock tumbled into Henri’s hand. - -Then he lifted the lid of the treasure chest! - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. THE FORTUNE OF THE TROUVILLES. - - -As the fire-balls flashed upon many velvet-lined trays displayed by the -lifting of the lid, all the colors of the rainbow seemed to combine in -the dazzling surface--the white glitter of diamonds, the violet-purple -of amethysts, the blue of the sapphire, the crimson of the ruby, the -deep rich green of the emerald, the changing tints of the opal--a very -pool of gems shimmering under the eager gaze of the three boys. - -“Carry me out of fairyland,” was Billy’s break of the silence that -followed the first look into the chest. - -Reddy was all eyes and no tongue, but Henri had to say something in his -rôle of showman: - -“Some rare stones there, eh? Many years’ gathering, too. This,” picking -up a gold-threaded bracelet of diamonds and amethysts, “is said to -have been a later gift to the house from the royal gentleman that beat -us to the bed upstairs. Whole lot of history here,” lifting a handful -of jewels and letting them fall again into their glittering bed, “but -we’ll keep all that for the campfire, if we ever get back to it. - -“Here’s some hard cash, by the way,” moving a jewel tray and pulling -out a buckskin bag. “I am afraid,” added Henri regretfully, “that we -can’t carry a whole lot of this in a single trip where we have to -travel light.” - -“We can make a noble try at it,” stoutly maintained Billy, who did not -relish the idea of leaving anything in the chest. - -Henri jerked loose the cord that closed the mouth of the bag and let -the gold coins fall in a shining heap on the floor--a mixed collection -of franc pieces of various values, of French minting; English -sovereigns and the German mark. - -This shower could have been repeated many times, for under the trays -were long rows of the same kind of buckskin bags, with contents alike. - -“Wish we had a tray.” - -Billy realized that they had found more than they could carry. - -“We will load first with the stones from the trays,” proposed Henri. -“And then add all the cash we can.” - -The boys proceeded to empty their knapsacks of the remains of the -rations they carried, and by way of proper economy seated themselves -on the stone floor for the purpose of stowing all the food they could -inside them. - -“I won’t be hungry again for a week, I’m sure,” asserted Billy, shaking -the crumbs from his blouse. - -“Then let’s to business,” briskly remarked Henri, as he engaged in the -pleasing pastime of stuffing diamond ornaments into his knapsack. Billy -and Reddy followed the leader in the jewel harvest, and all three of -the knapsacks were soon filled to capacity and the straps carefully -buckled. - -That left only pockets, jacket lining and such space as could be used -between clothing and skin for the coins. - -“Remember, fellows,” advised Henri, “that we mustn’t anchor ourselves, -for there is some lively effort ahead of us.” - -Billy was compelled to acknowledge that he was loaded to the limit -at that very moment, and Reddy certainly carried more weight in his -clothes than he ever had before or ever did afterward. - -Shutting down the lid of the chest with a bang, covering again the -considerable amount of gold that the boys were compelled to leave, -Henri was about to announce departure. An afterthought, however, -induced him to lift the lid a second time. He removed the key of the -padlock from the hoop and tossed the rest of the keys into the chest. -Again closing the lid, he snapped the padlock in place and slipped the -key into the band of his cap. - -“Now we’re off.” - -“S-sh!” - -Billy turned the dark slide in his lantern. Henri and Reddy followed -the cue. - -Somebody or something was moving in the passage on the other side of -the wall. - -That somebody or something suffered a bump of some sort or other--a -sound like the overturning of a chair. - -Then a muttered oath in French. The somebody or something was human, -and French. - -The boys backed up into the darkest corner of the treasure house. - -The grated window cast only a dim light into the room, but that line -streaked straight across into the opening in the wall directly opposite. - -The head and shoulders of a man appeared in the opening! - -Even in the half-light Henri recognized the soldier who had lost the -flagon and the suspicious tapper on the oak around the fireplace in -the dining-hall. - -From that panel in the dining-hall to the treasure house Henri, in his -haste, had neglected to close the other slides, and even the plate over -the stairway behind him. - -He had carried a light chair from one of the upper chambers so that he -could get back into the treasure house without a boost. It was over -this that the trailing chasseur had stumbled, and which also gave the -red-trousered sleuth the very clew he needed as to the whereabouts of -the mysterious party who had taken the flagon from under his very heels. - -Here was a pretty howdy-do for the boys. A soldier, and no doubt an -armed soldier, between them and the carrying out of their cherished -project. - -There was only one way out of the sealed chamber, and that soldier was -in it. - -Could Reddy, the fox of the woods, suggest a trick that would win here? - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. TRAILED BY A CHASSEUR. - - -The soldier was evidently figuring in his mind as to what would be the -next move on his part. Finding no sign of life in the place where he -expected, no doubt, to lay a hand or an eye on the impertinent party -that had stolen the flagon, the chasseur seemed to hesitate about -dropping down into what must have appeared to him a dungeon, and -risking the chance of a hidden enemy leaping upon him from some shadowy -corner. - -It apparently occurred to him that more light would clear the problem, -for he drew himself up to a sitting position on the cross-piece, -produced a match and scratched it across the sole of his shoe. - -The tiny flicker did not give much satisfaction. The shadows were -too deep for a little flame like that to penetrate them to any great -distance. - -The boys stood like statues, flat against the wall, on the same side, -and some twenty feet from the opening where the soldier was wasting -matches. The darkness hung about them like a pall. - -It was one exciting moment when Billy had a sneeze coming on, and did -not know whether or not he could conquer it. A sneeze just then would -have settled the whole business. - -But Billy did not sneeze; he nearly suffocated, though, by holding his -cap so closely against his face. - -The soldier had apparently exhausted his supply of matches, for the -final scratch was accompanied by a grunt that sounded like _sacres -allumettes_, blasted matches. - -With that he swung himself down into the passage on the other side of -the opening. - -Billy, after a few minutes’ wait, made a move toward the opening. - -Henri laid a restraining hand upon Billy’s arm. - -“Wait a bit,” he whispered, “better let Reddy do his shadow act and -find out where our friend in the red trousers has taken himself.” - -Reddy instantly shifted his heavily laden knapsack from his shoulders, -removed his gold-filled jacket, kicked off his shoes, and edged his way -along the wall on tiptoes. - -Under the opening he stood in listening attitude for several minutes; -then, taking advantage of the rough stonework of the inside wall, he -climbed like a squirrel to the cross-piece. - -Cautiously poking his head through the opening, Reddy had another look -and listened for his fellow countryman in uniform. - -The soldier was nowhere to be seen--and Reddy could view the short -passage as far as the foot of the spiral staircase, where the light -came down from the open plate above. - -Reddy lowered himself into the passage and cat-footed to the staircase, -winding his way upward, every nerve on edge, and he ready for any -emergency. - -The soldier was not in evidence yet, but Reddy could now trace the -chasseur by the marks on the dusty floor of the passage, for it was -still light up here, though the sun, it could be seen through the panel -opening in the royal bed chamber, was sinking, and evening was near. - -With eyes to the floor and crouched like an Indian trailer, the boy -noted that the chasseur had gone toward the panel opening into the -dining-hall, at least the traces showed that the footmarks reversed -themselves, retracing in the same direction. Reddy could distinguish -the soldier’s tracks from those which he and his companions had made -that morning, because the legging strap under the man’s shoes was -clearly outlined in the dust. - -Reddy, seeing that the coast was clear, for the time being, scooted -back to where Henri and Billy were anxiously waiting and called them -by name. Reddy’s knapsack, jacket, and shoes fell about him in the -passage, speedily followed by the two boys. Henri stood on the chair -and closed the wall section, which settled back without leaving a seam -or mark on the wall surface. - -“I’ll bet they won’t find that hole unless they batter down the whole -wall,” was Henri’s comment. - -The boys lost no time in getting upstairs and into the main passage, -and there paused to give Henri a moment to figure the next move. - -It was suddenly made manifest that at least one way was blocked, for -loud voices rang out in the passage in the direction of the dining-hall. - -The chasseur had gone for assistance to aid him in solving the puzzle -that he had at first wanted to solve by himself. - -Billy and Reddy thought that this time sure they were done for, but -Henri was still in the reckoning. He was at home, and knew every crook -and cranny in the maze of passages. - -As the soldiers approached nearer and nearer, arguing in rapid-fire -French as they came, Henri wheeled, slammed the bedroom panel into -place, and hustling his companions into a run retreated up the passage -to the north, stopping an instant to close the plate over the staircase. - -“That fellow will have to do some tall explaining when he comes up with -his crowd, for he won’t be able to show all that he may claim to have -seen; that is, for a while, anyway.” - -Henri was taking a positive dislike to the soldier who had proved such -a bother at this critical period. - -At the very end of the passage they were traversing arose a stained -glass window of most exquisite design. On each side of the window the -wainscoting was inlay work, model of ancient arts and crafts. - -Henri used his hands on this surface as he would finger a checker or -chess board. A large square swung open like a cupboard door and Henri -motioned his comrades to pass through, and he, at their heels, closed -the panel. - -They stood in a narrow gallery, looking down into a chapel interior, -most beautiful to behold. Hurrying along this gallery, the boys halted -at a door heavily mounted with brass fittings. It was opened without -effort and the boys found themselves at the head of another of those -steep stairways, this one, however, running straight down--and a long -way down. - -It led to the crypt, or subterranean vault, under the chapel. Here the -boys lighted their lanterns, at the suggestion of Henri. The latter -shouldered a protruding stone in the wall of the cell and it gave way, -disclosing of all the passages they had encountered in the house the -most dismal and forbidding. - -“Push in,” said Henri, “and we’re on the way to ‘Old Round Tower!’” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. A RACE FOR LIFE. - - -“Gee! But isn’t this a jolly place, if you don’t care what you say.” - -A rat almost as big as a small rabbit had made a dash over Billy’s -feet. He also had just dodged a bat that had flapped straight at his -head. - -“You’re a good way underground, my boy,” said Henri, “and I guess it’s -been many a day since anybody hit this trail. It is called ‘Monk’s -Walk.’ Jules, Francois and myself explored this passage one day when we -didn’t have anything else to do, but had no desire to do it more than -once. Our old butler, he was ninety when he died, showed us how to get -in here, and he had a long story to tell about a hair-raising happening -here a century ago. But that’s another thing that will keep for the -campfire.” - -The journey through this rat and bat infested passage seemed an age in -the making. The floor was damp and slippery and each of the boys had a -fall, but, happily, without injury. - -It was really less than half an hour that was consumed in going from -the crypt of the chapel to the door opening into “Old Round Tower,” but -Billy declared that he was much older when he got there than when he -started. - -“‘It’s dead for sleep I am,’ as Mike said,” further declared the boy -from Bangor, “and I’ll bet it’s past midnight this very minute. Twenty -minutes of, anyhow,” looking at his watch. “And hasn’t this been a day -and a half for full measure? Something doing every minute.” - -Reddy felt the same way, but there was no use telling Billy so, because -Billy did not take kindly to the French language. - -Henri himself, if the truth be known, was fighting to keep his eyes -open. - -So on the bottom floor of “Old Round Tower” the boys stretched -themselves, and with knapsack pillows as hard as the floor itself they -dozed into uneasy slumber, which lasted until the dawn of a new day. - -The sleepers were startled by the roar of cannon. Not that the roar of -cannon was unusual to these now veterans in the ways of war, but the -booming seemed particularly close this morning, and in a locality that -had, as stated before in this chronicle, heretofore escaped shelling. - -“I thought that French general had gone to seek trouble when the whole -push galloped away yesterday,” was Billy’s first after-waking remark. - -“Pity they hadn’t taken that dining-hall chasseur with them.” - -Henri in this moment of alarm, had a thought for the busybody who had -tracked them from pillar to post a few hours ago. - -A shell landed with tremendous explosion in the courtyard of the -château; another, and another, until the whole place was shaken in -every foundation, the air was aflame with the shrieking projectiles, -and crash after crash made a din that was deafening. - -“Us for the tunnel!” cried Henri, as a round-shot clipped the side of -the tower above them and sent down a hail of stone chips. - -The boys got out from under that tower in a hurry, and fortunate for -them that they did. Two or three minutes later the whole structure -collapsed under the terrific impact of the shelling. - -When the trio ran through the tunnel door, it was sealed behind them by -tons of riven stone. - -Pale to the lips and trembling as if with acute ague, the boys weakly -stumbled down the tunnel’s descending course. - -The earth above and about them quaked and shivered as the storm of -powder and lead raged outside. - -The same powerful engines of destruction that had blasted and silenced -the French barrier forts had been turned on the château and its -surroundings. Such buildings were as paper before this cannonading. - -The walls of the tunnel were holding as far as the boys had proceeded. -But they had yet to traverse the line in low ground, where they had -noted, in coming, the sagging roof and leaning walls, which even then -had almost choked up the passage. - -With these conditions made worse by the artillery shake-up, it would be -a close call if the boys escaped burial alive. There was no way out at -the rear. - -A shut off ahead--and that would be the end. - -But for the lanterns it is doubtful if the boys could have refrained -from running wild, and dashing into obstructions without care or reason. - -They at least did not have the added horror of total darkness with -which to contend. - -As the descent grew sharper so grew the nerve strain of the travelers. - -They passed the first point of danger on hands and knees. Between the -roof and the floor there was the scant margin of three feet. - -At the next the barrier presented an even tighter squeeze. - -Then a clearer way for ten or fifteen yards. - -Here it was that the lantern shafts of light ahead showed in one -appalling instant a shifting of earth; first dust, then clods and small -stones. - -The passage was closing in! - -The boys stood for a second as if petrified in their tracks. - -_Pour vos vies, courez!_ (for your lives, run!) - -Reddy’s shrill voice broke the spell, and the three dashed for the fast -closing aperture. Billy, in the lead, essayed to step aside and let -the others get through first, but Henri countered the movement with a -violent push against the back of his friend and a reach for Reddy’s -neck--the one boy he pushed through and the other he dragged, himself -falling, full length, on his face, but safe on the other side of the -death trap! - -None too soon, for Henri’s legs were powdered with the dust from the -earth mass that had fallen in a lump just behind him! - -“Glory be!” - -Billy said it with more fervency than ever before. - -“Glory be!” - -He said it again with grateful heart. - -They were on the gradual ascent, and finally rested under the slab that -would let them out into the free air. - -No matter what they might be called upon to face there--it would be in -the open. - -Glory be! - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. THE SERGEANT TO THE RESCUE. - - -“There’s nothing to do but lie here until nightfall,” said Henri. “A -try for camp now would be almost a sure shot that we would be gobbled -up. They’re fighting all around us.” - -“Held up, you mean, don’t you?” - -Billy could see only one fate for walking jewelry shops. - -Reddy was in favor of a night move. He favored darkness for this kind -of adventure, except in tunnels. He told Henri that if given half a -chance he (Reddy) could get them back to their friends with the same -ease that he had conducted the excursion to the mouth of the tunnel. - -“Billy mustn’t step on any sticks, though,” he added with a twinkle in -his eye. - -Billy knew that his name had mixed in the conversation, but he was not -sure just what the little Frenchman was joking about. Besides, he was -too thirsty to care. - -“My throat is as dry as a bone,” he complained. - -“I’m a little husky myself,” admitted Henri, “and wouldn’t mind -spending a few franc pieces for a pitcher of lemonade”--jingling the -gold in his pockets. - -“That reminds me,” he continued, “that I’m thinking that it would be a -good plan to bury this stuff right where we are. There is no telling -what kind of a chase we will have getting back to camp, and it would be -rough luck to chance losing that for which we have risked so much.” - -“But that means another trip here,” argued Billy, “and it’s me for one -with no wish to haunt this territory.” - -Reddy turned a torrent of French loose on Henri. - -“He says,” Henri translating to Billy, “that to-night he will take to -the woods alone, reach Colonel Bainbridge and tell him of our troubles, -and it may be that sufficient force could be sent to pull us lambkins -and the treasure out of the hole.” - -“Bet the colonel will do it!” - -Billy enthusiastically approved the scheme. - -“Come to think of it, though,” he amended, “if it isn’t unfair to Reddy -I think it is a great idea.” - -“Don’t you worry about Reddy,” assured Henri, “he is better off around -here without us than we would be without him.” - -“Then the only thing on my mind now is one big drink of cold water.” -Billy drew a long breath at the thought. - -But thirst and hunger the boys must endure for a while; they dared not -risk all until actually forced to do so. - -Billy looked at his watch at least twenty times that afternoon. He was -not quite sure that it was right, for the little silver ticker had been -badly dented during the struggle for life in the tunnel, but the works -were still merrily moving, and so continued worthy of confidence. - -The watch, on the twentieth inspection, showed seven o’clock. The time -for Reddy’s departure was drawing nigh. - -No longer a rich prize for would-be captors, Reddy put himself in trim -for swift and silent mission. His jewel-laden knapsack he laid aside. -He shed gold, indeed, from every pore, and stood erect and smiling, as -poor in purse as when he fled from his ruined home into the hills. - -The watch ticked away another hour. Then Reddy was hoisted aloft on -Billy’s shoulders, and turned the palms of his hands upward against -the slab. A vigorous shove that almost cost Reddy his balance raised -the stone and turned it to one side. Reddy did not fall backward, he -leaped upward, dug his elbows into the earth, and wriggled out upon -solid ground. - -Pushing the slab back into place, and without another word, he bounded -away in the darkness toward the familiar path in the ravine. - -Nine--ten--eleven--midnight were counted by Billy’s watch. - -After that the two comrades ceased to mark time. They were too drowsy -to mark anything. - -They would not have attempted to resist a rat had one attacked them. - -There was coming from the tier of hills, from the terraced slopes -rising above the valley of the Meuse, armed aid, but of the good -tidings there was yet no sign to the weary, hungry, thirsty boys in the -far-off cave. - -Reddy had gone straight as a homing pigeon to the army headquarters, -had pleaded his way through every sentry post, and to the presence of -Colonel Bainbridge. - -The mainspring of the military machinery was quick to act, and it was a -gallant array that the little red-headed Frenchman guided to the rescue -of the treasure guards he had left in the tunnel. - -There was yet a bayonet charge to be resisted before the slab was -lifted. There had been fierce combat, hand-to-hand, as well as -artillery practice at Château Trouville. A company in gray had fallen -back from the main body in the night in the direction of the ruined -fort. The rescue party came as a surprise out of the ravine, and “point -of rocks” was made the scene of a brief but desperate encounter. The -German force, outnumbered, gave way. - -Reddy, who had been viewing the clash from behind a screen of stones, -jumped from the slab when danger had ceased to threaten, and in his -excitement plumped down into the pit like a football. - -Billy and Henri, now very much awake, were jointly seized by the hands, -and Reddy, who had alighted flat-footed, pulled his comrades about in a -sort of circular war dance. - -This came to a sudden stop when a deep, commanding voice hurled these -words downward: - -“You kids come up and report!” - -The speaker was Sergeant Scott. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. ORDERS TO MOVE. - - -Reddy having resumed his share of the burden of precious stones and -gold pieces, the three boys were given, in turn, the glad hand and a -stout pull out of the pit. The sergeant tried his best to maintain -a severe manner, but the effort proved a rank failure. The delight -of the big trooper over the finding and assured safety of his young -charges would not down. Even the natural and cultivated reserve of the -Englishman was not proof against the affectionate regard he felt for -the boys he had both fathered and mothered for these many days. - -As the rescue party marched on either side of the sergeant, striving to -match his long step, walked Billy and Henri, with Reddy close in the -rear. - -“You got me in a pretty mess with the colonel, you little rascals.” - -“Well, we just had to do it, Sergeant,” answered Henri. “It’s what we -came for, and you can’t blame us for not throwing away our last chance -to win out. It was for sure our last chance, for Château Trouville is -no more.” - -There was a note of sadness in the last sentence. It was of great -sorrow to Henri that this beautiful home place had been reduced to a -smoking ruin, with its priceless works of art and all those heirlooms -so dear to the hearts of the race of Trouville. - -All that remained of the family fortune had been saved by Henri and his -faithful boy friends at the risk of their lives. - -Saved? Many a league to travel, before the treasure reached its fixed -destination, many a slip to be avoided, many a sharp corner to be -bravely turned. - -“We thank you with all our hearts, sir.” - -The boys were greeting Colonel Bainbridge, and each was favored by that -officer with a warm handshake. - -“Away with you now,” ordered the colonel. “Get food and rest. To-morrow -I have new plans for you. Leave your knapsacks in yonder tent, over -which a guard will be mounted.” - -The boys thought that no place had ever appeared so attractive as the -field kitchen, with its soup boiler and its oven on wheels. And the -cooks were more than kind. It was well known that the colonel had -favored attention to his young friends. - -Relieved of hunger and thirst the boys hunted up their old friend, the -teamster, and he provided them with blankets and a comfortable nest -under cover of a supply wagon. - -The next morning the boys expected an after-breakfast summons from the -colonel, but there was no call for them from headquarters. Fierce -fighting was going on in the valley town of St. Mihiel, on the right -bank of the Meuse, and, in viewing the conflict from the hillside -point, the boys were thrilled by a moving picture that would have -commanded a fortune in the films. - -The town on which the war plague had fallen is on the site of the -ancient Abbey of St. Mihiel, and the tide of this day’s battle surged -about the noted Church of St. Mihiel, containing that fine statue of -the Madonna, by the great artist, Richier, and also the choir stalls -world-famed for their beauty. - -Henri and Reddy took it as a personal grievance that these things -should be threatened with destruction. - -“I’ll just tell you what,” suddenly declared Billy, breaking a long -silence on his part, “I’d like to be the aviator who makes the first -flight across the Atlantic, and especially if I could start to-day from -this side!” - -“And leave me, Billy?” - -Henri had applied the tonic that Billy needed. - -“Not this day, or ever, Buddy. It was only this war business that set -me dreaming of better days. On to Paris, old chum, you and I!” - -Billy was himself again. - -Turning back to camp, the boys were informed that the colonel had given -the word that they were to report to him as soon as they could be -found. - -“Something’s up,” predicted Billy, as they hurried to headquarters. - -The colonel, when they arrived, was busy poring over an outspread map, -and occasionally conferring with other officers grouped about him. - -It was some time before the boys received attention, for evidently some -issue of considerable moment was under discussion. - -When the colonel finally expressed himself satisfied with the program -outlined, he turned to his young friends and remarked: - -“I presume that you will not object to my making a change of base, -and,” smiling, “I hope you will not deny me the honor of your company -in the movement.” - -“Always at your command, colonel,” gallantly responded Henri. - -“Then,” concluded the colonel, “you will be advised shortly of the hour -of marching.” - -“What’s to become of me?” - -This was the anxious question that Reddy addressed to Henri as they -left headquarters. - -“You don’t suppose that we’re going to lose you this side of Paris, do -you?” was Henri’s prompt counter question. - -“Paris!” joyfully echoed the boy. “Me? Let’s hurry!” - -Billy guessed that Reddy was glad. - -“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on the way,” hummed the boy -from Bangor, as they hastened to tell the teamster the good news. - -An hour later the sergeant came down to the wagon. As usual, he spoke -to the point: - -“Get your bundles, boys!” - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. THE BOYS GO GUN HUNTING. - - -The French had been massing their troops by forest paths, from Verdun -and Toul, to throw them against the Germans in desperate endeavors to -break the lines which protected the sites for the German heavy siege -artillery and the Austrian automobile batteries of twelve-inch siege -guns. - -To join in this movement the command of Colonel Bainbridge was -preparing. - -For days the French aviators had repeatedly scrutinized every acre of -land looking for a concealed battery of growlers, snugly hidden in a -wood on the rolling heights of the Cote Lorraine. These aviators had -failed to mark a find. - -The conference that the boys had witnessed at headquarters, when -summoned by Colonel Bainbridge, had to do with this battery problem. -They had then heard mention of the doings and failure of the flying -corps, but further had not been taken into the confidence of the -officers. - -When the sergeant directed them to get their bundles, Billy and Henri -began to hope that they might run into an opportunity to once again get -near a flying-machine, if not into one. - -“I’d like to get above ground once more, for sure I’ve had enough -underground work lately to last me a lifetime.” - -The desire of Billy to do some lofty sailing was twin with the wish -that haunted Henri. - -“Let’s volunteer to scout for that battery,” urged the latter, aroused -by his chum’s suggestion. - -“No use,” was Billy’s discouraging reply. “The colonel won’t stand for -it.” - -“But, maybe he would, after all,” reasoned Henri, “if we put it up to -him the right way. His own son was in that branch of the service.” - -“If you can convince the colonel, well and good.” - -Billy appeared to think that there was a conspiracy afloat to keep him -tied fast to the ground. - -“I’m going to make the try,” said Henri, “as soon as we join the other -force.” - -He did make the try next day, and finally persuaded the colonel that -under the constant battery fire Billy and himself would be at least as -safe in the air as on the march. - -“Just think, colonel, what a chance for us to do something worth while, -and do it the only way we can. As soldiers we don’t count. As aviators -we’re the lucky number.” - -When the French commander heard that one of our Aviator Boys had an -idea that his eyes were better than those of the military flyers, he -amusedly assented to the proposition, but only because of the fact that -there was a shortage just then in the aviation corps--two of them only -the day before having sailed in the way of a shell from one of the big -mortars of the enemy. - -“It’s our job!” - -This was the joyful announcement of Henri to his flying partner. - -The next argument was with the sergeant, but he, too, was compelled to -throw up his hands in surrender. - -The French aviator who directed the corps told Henri that their detail -was for “artillery reconnaissance.” - -When Henri translated the name of their job to Billy, the latter said -that “gun hunting” would serve just as well, and it could be spoken in -one breath. “I haven’t enlisted on either side, mind you,” added Billy. -“I am just aching to fly--that’s all.” - -The French outfit included a machine “built for two,” and of a make -with which the boys were familiar. - -The only instructions given the amateur scouts related to the direction -of the mysterious shelling point from which so much damage had been -inflicted upon the Allies without an open chance to retaliate. - -For the treasure the colonel had agreed to act as banker, and, as a -balm to Reddy’s wounded feelings, when he rebelled at separation from -his friends, that youngster was assigned to duty as special messenger -within the lines. - -Again our Aviator Boys listened to the vibration of the aëroplane, the -rattle, roar and hum of the motor, the music that soothes the nerves of -every practiced airman. - -The boys hit the high grade at 8,000 feet, and circled in huge ellipses -between the allied troops and the positions hostile to them. - -Henri had been given a powerful field glass, and he was faithfully -using it in acute observation. The roar of the aërial travel was so -loud in the quiet of the upper air that it drowned the occasional -thunder of the big guns, which fire could be marked by sight if not by -hearing. - -A few moments of sweeping flight, and the young aviators were looking -down on the wood mapped as suspicious. - -They hovered about, while Henri worked the field glasses to the limit, -but to no avail. - -“Let her down a bit!” he yelled to Billy. - -Billy cut the height a thousand feet or so. - -Nothing but tree-tops was in sight. - -“More yet!” shouted Henri. - -Dangerously near now, if there was a hidden battery below. - -Henri bent further over the frame of the machine, with the glasses -aimed at a certain point, which had suddenly become of special interest -to him. He had seen something that was not a tree-top. - -The glasses revealed the location of the battery. The guns, two in this -particular position, stood behind a screen of thickly branching trees, -the muzzles pointing toward a round opening in this leafy roof. The -crew as suddenly discovered their visitors, and instantly, as busy as -bees, sprang to their posts. - -“Turn her loose!” screamed Henri in Billy’s ear, and Billy did “turn -her loose,” up and away. - -The gunners were not quick enough to catch this winged target, but they -burned a couple of large holes in the air in trying. - -Billy drove the aëroplane into a protecting cloud that closed white and -moist around them. - -Twenty minutes later the excited flyers told their story to the colonel. - -“That ride was a bully treat,” declared Billy; “but really I’d like to -have stopped in a chummy way with those fellows on the hill long enough -to see them work the guns. They’re some hustlers with the big irons, I -tell you.” - -“Next time you can send in your card,” laughed Henri. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. GOOD NEWS FROM DOVER. - - -The bombardment of Rheims was in full blast, and here it was that the -boys witnessed a strange combination of war and peace. Unaffected -by the terrific shelling of the town, refugees from Northern France -and Belgium were busy in the country picking grapes for the French -champagne yield. - -“Can you match that?” - -Billy marveled at the scene presented. - -Henri and Reddy were intently watching the flight of shells, some of -which struck the cathedral, and a boy bugler, between 14 and 15 years -old, who came out of the heat of the fray, told them that a shell had -fallen on one of the high altars and had considerably damaged it. - -This youngster had the grit, for he was as cool as a cucumber under -fire, and with his battalion had been nearly all day where bullets flew -thicker than flies in Egypt. - -“That was quite a shake-up,” referring to the shell explosion in the -cathedral, “but,” assuming the easy air of one accustomed to such -things, “it wasn’t a marker to some of the whacks I’ve seen coming from -those howitzers. - -“I’m from Dover; name Stetson; came over with the marine brigade; from -where does your ticket read?” - -The youthful bugler was looking at Billy. - -“From Bangor, Maine, United States of America; Barry is the family -handle, and the front name is Billy. - -“Mr. Stetson, I’ll have you know Mr. Henri Trouville and Mr. Joseph -Mouselle, I think that is the way you pronounce it, isn’t it, Reddy?” - -“Oh, call me Jimmy,” jovially urged the newcomer; “what’s ‘misters’ -between friends?” - -“Did you know Capt. Leonidas Johnson and Mr. Josiah Freeman in Dover?” -asked Billy. - -“Did I know them?” cried Jimmy. “Did I know the town-clock and the -wharves? They’re the flying machine men, and I have hung around their -hangars so much that I must have worn out my welcome. To tell the -truth, though, I am on the waver between an aëroplane and a submarine. -I’ve have had some training, too, in the underwater boats. Say, coming -back at you, do you know Capt. Johnson, or just heard of him?” - -“Rather well acquainted with him, I should imagine,” stated Billy with -a smile; “Henri and I rode up here in the captain’s seaplane.” - -“Gee whiz, then, you’re the Aviator Boys I have heard about. I was -in London when that happened, and when I came back to Dover to say -farewell to mother I had no more than time to wave a hand to the -captain before the ship sailed for Ostend.” - -“Do you mean to say that Captain Johnson and Josh Freeman are in -Dover?” was Billy’s excited query. - -“Just so,” stoutly maintained Jimmy. “I saw them with my own eyes.” - -“Glory be!” Billy was happiest when he said that. - -“Hear that, Henri, old boy? Capt. Johnson and Freeman are safe in -Dover.” - -Billy could not help repeating the glad tidings. - -“Wonder how they got away?” - -Henri would have been mightily pleased to talk it over with the old -boys that very minute. - -Billy had already added Jimmy to his good friend list, and these two -kept up a running fire of questions aimed at one another. - -Aëroplanes and submarines were dissected and put together again many -times during the lively conversation. - -“How did you get so far from the water? You ought to be blowing a -fog-horn instead of a bugle, Jimmy.” - -“I’ll tell you, Billy,” replied Jimmy, “that it was just a fluke that -I got anywhere outside of prisoners’ quarters. They picked up a bunch -of us at Nieuport, and one of the German officers asked me if I had run -away from school. The fact that they classed me kindergarten furnished -me the chance of skipping, and I starved my way to the camp of the -Coldstream Guards. They were going my way or I was going theirs, and -here I am.” - -The boys had a reminder about that time that a war was going on, for -chunks of lead began to purr over the exposed position where they were -grouped. - -“Blow a retreat,” suggested Henri to the bugler; but none of them -waited for that signal to get to cover. - -So great had grown their confidence in the new friend that Henri and -Billy at mess that evening jointly gave him details of their adventures -in the château and the tunnel, and even told about the treasure they -were carrying. - -Jimmy was an eager listener, and as the tale unfolded, his admiration -for the prowess of his new comrades reached the top degree. - -“I’ve joined the band,” he insisted earnestly, “and I’m going to see -you through. Count me in from date.” - -“If we only had Leon with us now,” laughed Henri, “we could push over -an army.” - -“You bet Leon was a good one.” - -Billy had more than once declared that if he ever got near to a place -where they stocked Christmas ships there would be something special in -the cargo for the little Belgian. - -When the sergeant roll-called the boys, as usual, that night he was -requested to include Jimmy. - -“If I adopt a few more of you,” he grumbled, “I’ll be fit for the -presidency of Bedlam.” - -But the sergeant’s bark was far worse than his bite. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. SAVED THE DAY! - - -The shifting tide of battle had forced the advanced line of the Allies -to contend with a strong forward movement of German troops. In the -shelter of a wonderfully ingenious and deep-dug trench the boys looked -out upon a bloody battlefield, one of the bloodiest in European history. - -French soldiers with rifles in their hands, standing or kneeling -in the immediate vicinity, keenly peered over the flat land toward -the positions known to be held by the Germans, concealed in the -woods--forests believed to be bristling with machine guns, backed by -infantry in rifle pits and covered trenches. - -Time and again the French infantry had found these positions -impossible of taking owing to barbed wire entanglements strewn with -brush and branches of trees. - -A heavy siege gun supporting the Allies was in action at the time. A -French artilleryman with the hand elevating gear rapidly cranked the -big barrel down to a level position ready for loading. A second threw -open the breech and extracted the brass cartridge case, carefully -wiping it out before depositing it among the empties; four more -seized the heavy shell and lifted it to a cradle opposite the breech; -a seventh rammed it home; number eight gingerly inserted the brass -cartridge, half filled with vaseline-like explosive; the breech was -closed, and the gun pointer rapidly cranked the gun into position -again. In less than thirty seconds the men sprang back from the gun, -again loaded and aimed. The mortar sent its shell purring through the -air against a German position on a far-off hill. There was an answering -burst of flame from the enemy’s battery. Both shots were too high. With -this incessant trying for range, the sharp whirring sounds in the air -seemed almost continuous. And there were hits that pierced ramparts of -flesh and blood! - -Groups of wounded passed without ceasing, and yet the conflict was ever -renewed with death-defying courage. The command to which the boys were -attached had been driven from their entrenchment by literal showers of -shells, and fell back to the headquarters of yesterday. - -They were threatened from all sides with annihilation, hemmed in by -walls of steel and sheets of flame, on three sides by bayonets, and on -the other by blazing batteries. - -The left wing of the Allies was in desperate encounter also and unable -to effect a junction with and relieve the tremendous pressure on the -right. - -Twenty-five miles away were stationed troops of cavalrymen standing -at the heads of their chargers, ready to jump into the saddle at a -moment’s call and stem any torrent of infantry that came their way. -These cavalrymen had been so held in reserve by the Allies, because -of the burrowing campaign that had been conducted in the immediate -vicinity of the battlefield. But now that the fighting had burst the -confines of the trenches they were sorely needed. - -There was one way only to summon the reserves in time, so desperate was -the situation. That was by aëroplane. But two machines of the French -command had escaped destruction, and but one man of the aviation corps -out of six who was not among the missing, wounded or killed. - -This survivor, eager to serve, was ordered into his aëroplane and the -machine hurtled aloft. The flyer made a fearless attempt to cross the -field at a height of a quarter of a mile. Bullets from guns mounted on -top of a slope pierced the aëroplane’s gasoline tank, causing the fuel -to escape and forcing the pilot to attempt to glide to the earth. On -reaching the ground he tried to defend himself with a revolver, but was -quickly captured. - -The French commander, at the sight, shrugged his shoulders, and with a -despairing gesture turned to Colonel Bainbridge, with the words: - -“It is all over.” - -Henri heard the remark, and in wild excitement fairly leaped toward the -officers. - -“There’s another machine, and two of us left who know how to run it. -We’re ready!” - -The French officer recognized the speaker as one of the boys who had -located the German battery when his own aviators had failed to make a -find. - -“What do you think of it?” he asked Colonel Bainbridge. - -“I think that they can save the day,” solemnly asserted the officer -addressed. - -“To the front, Billy!” loudly called Henri. - -Billy was already “to the front”--he was testing the machine in -preparation for instant flight. - -Jimmy and Reddy were there with the shove that started the aëroplane -rolling; our Aviator Boys were in their places, and away they went. -They did not risk any low flight to attract high range guns, but -streaked for the clouds from the very start. - -Like an arrow, but even speedier, they moved a mile a minute, and, -descending, displayed the French colors to check a chance shot from -some enterprising cavalryman. - -The message delivered, there was a great ado about boots and saddles, -and the mounted troops galloped like mad toward the scene of action. - -Again rising high, the boys slackened pace that they might watch the -progress of the cavalry below, for as swiftly as these seasoned horses -might traverse the distance, they were as snails to an aëroplane. - -The flyers saw the cavalrymen hurl themselves into the conflict on the -plain, and saw men and charging horses go down here and there, and -infantrymen everywhere under furious onslaught. - -So formidable was the attack of the fresh troops that they won their -way to the position where their surrounded comrades were making what -they thought to be their last stand against overwhelming odds. - -It was, though, at fearful cost, through a bloody lane, and over ground -strewn with dead and wounded. - -The young airmen themselves had a close call before completing their -hazardous journey; a bullet struck the machine, causing it to lurch -as though reeling from a blow, and Billy had to throw the wheel hard -around to prevent the aëroplane from rolling right over upon its side. - -But, diving and swerving, the good craft swept down, while the relief -and the relieved regiments rent the air with cheers. - -Our Aviator Boys had saved the day! - - - - -CHAPTER XXX. SETTING OUT FOR THE SEA. - - -Verdun to Mezieres, near the historic field of Sedan; Dinant, -Namur--names of everyday reading now, on the northern army route to -Brussels. Colonel Bainbridge, Sergeant Scott, the Boy Aviators, Jimmy -and Reddy were all in the march for the coast region. The Trouville -jewels and gold had been sewn into four canvas belts, and one assigned -to each of the boys, who wore them under their blouses. It was the -intention of Henri and his young comrades to accompany the command -until it reached the vicinity of some near coast point, where they -planned to try for a ship voyage that would end in the English Channel. - -Jimmy had no military ties to hold him with the Coldstream Guards; he -was a waif until he found his own command. - -“Give me even a day on the old stamping grounds,” he said, “and it’s me -that will be a jolly boy.” - -“Wish there was a bridge over the briny deep,” chimed in Billy, “and I -know somebody who would soon start on the long walk to Bangor.” - -Henri was thinking of his mother, and Reddy was never out of his dream -of Paris. - -West Flanders was the scene of incessant military operations, and like -an island was cut off from the rest of Belgium, through the blowing up -of the bridges leading thereto. Peasants were obliged to make emergency -bridges from planks, and crawl along these to escape from the danger -zone. - -Among the last memories, outside of fighting, that the boys carried -from Belgium, were of the bedraggled men and women suffering through -cold and hunger. - -The Germans had declared the territory west of the railroad running -from Brussels to Antwerp an official war area, where nobody, including -even Germans, were allowed to travel without a special military -passport. - -“Now,” said Jimmy, “we’re on the dead-line; even if we could get into -Antwerp, it’s ten to one that we couldn’t get out, and so what’s the -use of getting in?” - -“But I’d rather take the chances of getting out of this wasp’s nest by -water than by attempting to break through any more wholesale killings -on the land.” - -That was Billy’s view. He was war-worn. - -“But we’re going back by water,” assured Jimmy, “only it won’t have to -be exactly from Antwerp. I’ve voyaged several times to Flushing--that’s -in The Netherlands, you know--and once among the Dutch, and in the -Scheldt river. I know a trick or two to get out on the North Sea.” - -“You’re the captain on this trip,” conceded Henri; “if we can’t sail -from Antwerp, let’s push along anywhere, so long as it’s up-coast, even -to The Hague. Once in neutral territory, some of our troubles are over.” - -“‘Some’ is the way to put it, Henri,” remarked Billy, “for if you had -said ‘all our troubles’ I’d think you were figuring on our final rest -at the bottom of the sea.” - -“Well, it’s just this way,” continued Jimmy. “I believe I know a -route, rounding Antwerp on the east, that will take us out of fighting -ground, and in the town of Santvlieto, on the Scheldt, I have a friend -who is mate on a trade vessel, regularly running between Flushing and -the channel. I feel sure that he is home, for there are so many mines -planted in the North Sea now that it isn’t safe to risk anything that -isn’t insured to the limit.” - -“But isn’t Santvlieto quite a way up the river from Flushing?” asked -Henri, who knew something of the coast line near Antwerp. - -“Easy distance in a boat,” advised Jimmy. “I’ve been up and down -several times with my friend.” - -“Let’s take the matter up with the colonel,” suggested Billy. - -The boys all agreed to that, and the colonel strongly advised them to -get out of the war zone, if they could do it in safety. - -“It’s hard to part with you, though, my brave boys, and,” particularly -addressing Billy and Henri, “I can never forget that it was you who -gave my dear dead son the best burial you could. I hope we can go -to that grave together some day. I will never forget, either, that -daring adventure of your own when you saved our command from being -annihilated. Here, sergeant,” calling to that officer who was drilling -some raw recruits nearby, “come and get your release as caretaker of -these youngsters.” - -Sergeant Scott stood as straight as a ramrod, facing the colonel and -his young friends. - -When he heard what the boys proposed to do, the sergeant bent his head -for an instant, then spoke gruffly, with a little husky note, too: - -“Fall in, you lads; eyes right; salute!” - -With all gravity salutes were exchanged. - -“We can give them convoy, can’t we, colonel?” - -“Yes, sergeant,” quickly replied the colonel, “give them protection as -far on the way as you think best.” - -With that the fine soldier and gentleman turned to address some of the -staff assembling for conference. - -The protecting force of cavalry were with the boys to a point within -five miles of the frontier, and all was clear. - -The sergeant gave each of the boys an iron hand grip, and, leading the -horses the boys had ridden, the troop wheeled and soon disappeared in a -cloud of dust. - -Billy, Henri and the sergeant were to meet again, but not in France or -Belgium. - -An hour later the boys were in neutral territory, and it was the first -breath they had drawn in peace in many a day. - -But of lasting peace, not yet. - -Hans Troutman was at home, and sorry for it--not because of the -unexpected visit of his young friend from Dover--he was delighted over -that,--but simply because Hans was a thrifty fellow who did not like -even to waste time, let alone money. - -While the good mother in the little house on the big river was setting -the oilcloth table-cover, with the kind of a meal that appeals to the -robust feeder, Henri was making a business proposition to Hans. - -Hans gloried in business propositions, and he could understand them in -three separate and distinct languages. - -Fifty gold franc pieces for his company and his boat to Flushing. - -Fifty more if he put the boys on a ship that was bound for the English -Channel. - -“It’s just like finding it,” said Hans, lighting his pipe. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI. LIKE A MIRACLE OF OLD. - - -Three Dutch men-of-war, with steam up, lay off Flushing, ready to -defend the neutrality of their waters. - -All vessels were forbidden to clear from the port and enter the North -Sea after nightfall, and on the sanded floor of the tap-room, in a -sailors’ house of rest, our boys were impatiently scraping their feet, -awaiting sunrise. In their anxiety to get away without submitting to -intimate inspection, they had no desire for napping. - -With their belts, these boys represented a money valuation of more than -a million francs. - -Since arrival in Flushing, the day before, Hans had been an active -mover at the mouth of the Scheldt, and for shipping news an eager -seeker. - -At this particular date, the rumor among men of the nautical trade -was that, in the rough sea, anchored mines were often going loose, and -a bobbing mine is not apt to have any discretion as to the keel with -which it collides. - -“I’ve heard dozens of mines explode in a single day,” said one captain -to Hans. The latter had heard a few himself. - -In addition to mines, the sea was crowded with torpedo boat destroyers, -submarines of all sorts and descriptions, and with cruisers the waters -fairly reeked. There, too, were the steam trawlers, either engaged -in laying or “sweeping” for mines. These “sweepers” run in pairs. -Between each pair a steel net is suspended. The theory is that mines, -whether floating or anchored, will be caught by that net. Then one of -the destroyers, which are constantly darting about, is signaled, and -destroys the mine by a single shot. - -Overhead, Zeppelins and other aircraft continually circled, dropping -bombs where they would do the most harm to those whom the airmen -desired to harm the most, and sometimes harm was done without intent. - -Once out of the Scheldt, and trouble was likely to begin any minute, -particularly for any craft considered unfriendly by the British fleet. - -A narrow lane had been slashed--as a woodsman would say--through the -sea. Outside of it there was danger everywhere. - -Such was the situation when Hans introduced Captain Eberhardt to the -restless four in the house of rest. - -The captain was a man of few words, and had a firecracker way of -delivering them. - -He said he owned a “scow with a funnel in it,” and he was one of the -pilots who were trusted to take boats through. The shoals in the -shallow and muddy water of the North Sea had been well marked in times -of peace, but now only here and there to be seen by the men at the -wheel, for guides, were big red “war buoys.” - -Henri had taken from the belts sufficient gold for even extraordinary -passage money for himself and comrades, and jingled the coins on the -deal table at which the party were sitting. - -“We want to get out of here at daybreak, if you can swing it, captain,” -he said. - -The captain looked at the coins and then at his watch, a massive silver -timepiece, hitched to his broad vest-front by twisted links of steel. - -“Bring ’em down”--the captain addressing Hans in Dutch. - -Hans nodded assent, and kept the captain company to the door, where -they apparently completed arrangements. - -When the cuckoo in the clock, shelved above the fancy tiled fireplace, -warbled the hour of 4 a. m., Hans shook the sleepy attendant into a -waking moment, and hustled him after cakes and coffee. - -At 5 o’clock Hans and the boys dropped again into the boat in which -they had floated down from Santvlieto. - -Captain Eberhardt’s vessel was in anchor in the sloppy waters off -Flushing, and the captain was aboard when Hans and the boys climbed to -the deck. - -The captain had also, just previously, been visited by members of the -coast guard service, but as he was well known, and not a character -under suspicion, this visit was wholly informal. - -At 7 o’clock the vessel weighed anchor, and steamed out to sea. - -With Flushing far behind them, the boys began to notice an occasional -appearance above the waves of a slim gray periscope, a long tube fitted -with a series of prisms, which enable the men guiding the submarines to -obtain a view of the surrounding water. - -When several of these under water boats showed at once, half submerged, -and men could be seen huddled together in the barrels of bridges, -Jimmy’s delight knew no bounds. - -“What do you think of them, now, you flying catapults?” he called to -the boys. - -“Wouldn’t mind taking a ride in one, old top,” was Billy’s genial -observation. - -“You’d like it when you got used to it,” advised Jimmy. - -“What’s up now?” - -Henri’s startled question referred to a dull sound, that came from a -point quartering to their course, and a fountain of water spurting into -the air. - -“A mine let go, I’ll bet,” surmised Henri. - -“You’re right, and a corker, too,” admitted Jimmy. - -The captain had evidently sighted something else from his position on -the bridge, for his firecracker voice shouted the order: - -“Run up those flags!” - -Three miles away a fleet of a half dozen destroyers were tearing toward -the little steamer, with black bands of smoke striking down from each -raking funnel. - -The captain on the bridge had seen an impatient signal snapping from -the flagship of the fleet. - -The curiosity of the fleet was soon satisfied, but the captain -complained that they ought to have known that he and his ship were no -strangers in these parts. - -He little reckoned, then, that the good old hulk was to get its -wrecking blow that night from the inside and not the outside. - -The boys, when the bell strokes were counting 10 o’clock, were still in -the vessel’s bow, where they had been since the early evening, talking -of the many dangers that lurked in the misty nooks of these turbulent -waters. - -“I guess I’ll turn in,” yawned Billy. “This craft is an awful drag; -it’s been acting like a street car on an avenue with two hundred -crossings. Come on, fellows.” - -The words were hardly spoken, when the deck beneath them gave a -sickening heave, with a deafening roar in its wake. - -The time-worn boilers in the engine room had rebelled at last, and, -bursting, they split the seasoned fabric that immediately confined them -into countless pieces. - -By the upheaval the boys were violently thrown over the deck railing -and into the churning water below. - -Breathless and half-stunned, they instinctively struck out in swimming -stroke, and from them the wreck drifted away into the darkness. - -Weighted down by the heavy belts, in addition to their clothing, the -swimmers were soon exhausted. - -The end was near! - -They swam close together, anticipating it. - -One more despairing reach for life--and life was there! - -The swimmers’ outstretched arms rested on the bridge of a submarine! - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII. LIKE A DREAM OF GOOD LUCK. - - -Through the conning tower hatch of the submarine emerged a sailor, -holding high a brilliant flare that looked like a small searchlight. - -“What’s your number, lads?” he hailed. - -“Four of us, sir,” weakly responded Jimmy. - -The sailor stepped out on the slippery deck of the boat, that -alternately rose and fell in the swell of the sea. - -“Whereaway?” questioned the sailor. - -“To the bottom of the sea, if you don’t give us a lift,” replied Jimmy. - -The sailor turned to the hatch, sent a call below, and two more jaunty -tars sprang through the opening. - -One of the last comers was just a youngster in years, but evidently -qualified for his dangerous calling. - -“By the ghost of Bloomsbury Park,” he exclaimed, when extending a -helping hand to Jimmy, and when the latter’s face showed in the shine -of the flare, “if it isn’t Stetson!” - -“I’ll be blowed if it isn’t Ned!” Jimmy had joined familiar company, it -seemed. - -“Seven hands ’round, Jimmy,” cried the young sailor, “did you drop from -the clouds?” - -“No,” said Jimmy, wringing the water from his cap, “I came by the -boiler route to help celebrate your birthday.” - -In the meantime, Jimmy’s fellow swimmers had been assisted to the deck, -and were practicing again the art of drawing a long breath. - -All of the wet ones had begun to shiver, for the wind had a sharp edge -to it. - -“Bring them below”--this command from the conning tower, by a fourth -sailor, who appeared to speak with authority. - -Glad of the chance to get under cover, the chilly explosion survivors -followed the officer below the hatch, and immensely enjoyed the warmth -of the snug quarters. - -“You’ll find this isn’t much of a passenger boat, my lads; it fits too -tight to suit most people.” This remark from the officer showing the -way. - -“It felt mighty good to us when we couldn’t find the bottom of the sea -with our feet.” - -Billy’s happy disposition was again working. - -It was Jimmy’s hour, this business of being inside of a submarine. Our -Aviator Boys might be princes of the air, but down here Jimmy Stetson -was the ace, and all the other cards. He could not give Henri any -points that would puzzle about the gasoline engine that furnished the -power when the craft was running on the surface, and, perhaps, not a -great deal that was new about the electric motor that propelled the -boat when under the water, but to all of the visiting boys, except -Jimmy, there was much of mystery about the way the vessel was raised -and lowered. - -How, when the ballast tanks are full, they sink the hull of the -submarine until only the periscope and top of the conning tower -are visible, and, when empty, the whole of the conning tower, -superstructure, and a portion of the hull ride above the water. - -How hydroplanes--short, broad fins--tilt the nose of the vessel so that -the propeller can drive the craft down fifty or sixty feet. - -Jimmy knew all about it, and the sailors let him have all the pleasure -of telling it to his wondering companions. - -The guarded screw propeller aft and outside, the vertical steering -rudders behind it, the air flasks which supply the crew with air when -the vessel is submerged, the torpedo equipment--all the details thereof -were reeled off by the Dover boy with great gusto. - -Ned Belton, with whom Jimmy had trained for submarine service in -London, laughingly nominated his friend, there and then, for head -talker on a sight-seeing ’bus. - -With roving commission, the submarine was lazily drifting, half -submerged, within sight of the lighthouse with the famous hexagonal -tower, near Nieuport-Bains, a little seaside resort in Belgium. - -The boys had realized that it was considerable of a cramp for the -submarine to carry passengers in the limited space allotted to the -crew, and barring this extreme emergency, it would not have done at all -for this fighting machine to serve any other than the purpose intended. - -It was agreed that the submarine would go as far as Dunkirk, in the -hope that opportunity would there present itself for the passengers to -pursue the returning course in some other vessel. - -A surprise beyond any dream of great fortune awaited them at Dunkirk. - -This port just then was a working out point for aircraft for scout duty -on the North Sea. - -From the conning tower of the submarine Henri and Billy were watching -with keen interest the aërial maneuvers then in progress. Suddenly the -lighter machines were overshadowed by a flying shape that darted like -an eagle among sparrows. - -The long, tapering hull, and the float attachments, the trim, wicked -gun in the bow, proclaimed this giant patrol of the air a fighting -sea-plane. - -With engines quiet, down dived the great steel-breasted bird; then a -swift upturning and she shot level upon the water and rode the waves -like a swan. - -A stone could easily have been tossed from the bridge of the submarine -upon the upper plane of the aircraft, so near together were they. - -The pilot of the sea-plane turned to view the rival factor in modern -warfare, half rising as he did so. - -Mutual recognition flashed across the few separating yards of distance. - -“Hello, captain!” shouted Billy. - -“Hello yourself, Billy Barry!” came the answering shout. - -“Whoopee!” This was Josh Freeman’s joyful contribution, as he poked a -grimy face from the tiny engine room of the big flyer. - -“Sling us a line,” called the captain. - -Ned made the cast with a stout bit of hemp, and the aircraft was drawn -alongside of the submarine. - -“Put ’er there, boys,” commanded Captain Johnson, reaching for Billy’s -outstretched hand; “and there’s Henri, bless you, my lad; give me the -grip; sure this is good for sore eyes.” - -Josh did not stop at handshaking, he encircled both boys in his brawny -arms and set their ribs to cracking. - -“Well, for all that’s out,” exclaimed the captain, spying Jimmy, who -was just appearing above the hatch, “here’s a whole garden of daisies! -Tip us your fin, Jimmy, and let me tell you that your mother is looking -for you.” - -“Why, I thought you had gone for a soldier, you Dover dandy,” put in -Josh, as he playfully saluted Jimmy. - -“Here’s another of the flock,” said Billy, pushing Reddy forward for -inspection. - -“When I get all of you aboard,” commented the captain, “it will look -like I was trying to outdo Noah. But come a runnin’ and I’ll pack you -all in somewhere, being as there are two lightweights among the four,” -referring to Jimmy and Reddy, “and none of you much heavier than a -pound of butter.” - -The crew of the submarine came in for some heartfelt expressions of -gratitude on the part of the boys, whose lives they had saved, and Ned -was privately made banker for some tobacco money for the men. - -“This is like old times,” contentedly remarked Billy, as he heard again -the drone of the sea-plane motors. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII. THE SEALED PACKET. - - -“We’re not in the soldier business,” explained Captain Johnson to -the boys; “it’s just a ‘trying out’ on contract on which we are now -engaged. The old machine is somewhere in Ostend, and I guess it’s -going to be a dead loss to us. You ask how we broke out of Ypres. Well, -we convinced a good sport in authority that it was just the wind that -blew us into the German lines, and we would favor any gale that would -blow us out again. - -“He had seen us as aërial performers once upon a time at Ostend, and -being an infantryman of the old school, he privately regarded the -whole flying fraternity in the light of circus stars. He did, however, -concede that if anything counted for much above ground, it was the -invention of his friend, Count Zeppelin. - -“As matters warmed up around Ypres, we were hustled back to Ostend, and -hung around there for some time, on parole, they called it, until one -day we were permitted to board a hospital ship bound for Calais. - -“We can’t show any scars, nor bullet holes in our clothes--not a thing -to add to our glorious achievement of turning you boys loose in the war -zone.” - -The captain by this time had heard all about the adventures of his -young friends. - -“In this fuel test,” he continued, “we can give you a lift that may -pretty near, if not quite, land you where you want to go. I wouldn’t -mind sailing into Paris myself, but there are no free agents at the -working end of a contract. I don’t know yet.” - -“Wake me and shake me at the mouth of the Thames,” exulted Jimmy, “show -me the docks at Tilbury, see that there is a light in the window for me -at Dover, and then won’t I be the horse for the Paris wagon!” - -“Bully boy!” applauded Josh. - -“Now get snug, you youngsters,” said the captain--“two in the bow and -two aft with Josh.” - -“Give her power, Freeman.” - -The planes were set for the upward flight, and the course for the -Straits of Dover. - -Reddy was the only “cat in a strange garret” when the sea-plane cut -through the air. The little Frenchman had never had a like sensation, -and he soon began to revel in it, even though he could look sheer down -through 3,000 feet of space and see the heaving sea. - -The captain lowered the flight along the French coast, for the soldiers -all down the line had been warned not to fire on the sea-plane, it -having been generally announced in wireless orders that it was an -English airship out on a trial run. The schedule included Boulogne, -and the boys had the opportunity of looking down upon the city where -Napoleon had once encamped his troops. - -Swinging ’round and circling backward, the sea-plane hovered over -Calais. Somebody had evidently forgotten orders, for when the big -machine was directly above the military governor’s headquarters a half -dozen or more soldiers seized their rifles and commenced firing at the -aviators. Out rushed an officer, crying: - -“C’est un Anglais! C’est un Anglais! Ne tirez plus!” (It is an -Englishman! It is an Englishman! Stop firing!) - -The sea-plane dropped into the harbor off Calais, and all except Josh, -remaining as faithful guardian of his precious motors, went ashore. - -The captain there hoped to solve the problem of getting his young -friends safely to Paris, and the boys certainly wished him the best -kind of luck in the effort. Both French approval and English backing -would help some in the way of hastening unmolested progress. - -On Rue de Moscow the boys discovered that these were days when there -was something doing every minute in Calais. Clouds of smoke rose from -sputtering motors, whizzing to and fro, some loaded with soldiers, some -with food, while others were hastening for the field of battle. - -Refugees from almost everywhere in the war zone filled the town to the -point of overflow--and such a medley of French and Flemish! Men wearing -blood-stained bandages, old women, babies in arms, worn out and half -starved. - -The great warehouses, the Hotel de Ville, the railway station, lace -factories, private residences, and even ships in the harbor, were used -as sleeping quarters. - -“We can’t get away from it,” sighed Henri, as the party noted a limping -procession of Belgian soldiers caked with mud, worn faces covered with -three or four weeks’ growth of beard, and who looked like they had -exhausted the last drop of energy and patience they had. - -“And they are coming in by the thousands,” volunteered a bystander. - -The boys waited near the Maritime station while the captain made his -visit of state to one in authority, with whom he was well acquainted. - -Presently the captain hove in sight, accompanied by a Belgian gendarme, -one of the force then engaged in patrolling the city. This was -evidently a guard of honor, for the captain had no appearance of being -disturbed by arrest. - -“Now, youngsters,” he briskly announced, “there is a bit of a -conference arranged for you, so put on your best front. It won’t be -like a visit to a dentist, I assure you.” - -In a street not far removed from the Victoria hotel, the captain -ushered his young charges into the vestibule of a pretentious looking -residence, and guided by a smiling secretary the visitors were soon in -the presence of a man of most distinguished bearing and cordial manner, -who instantly rose from his chair behind a desk littered with papers. - -“I have the pleasure, I believe,” he said in English, with only a trace -of the softer accent, “of making the acquaintance of young men who fly -like birds, and, also, who have seen much in the battlefields.” - -The boys bent their heads in acknowledgment of his kindly accusation. - -“The captain here tells me that you have an important mission in Paris, -of a strictly personal nature,” continued the genial host, when all -were seated. - -“We have, sir,” responded Henri. - -“You are a Trouville, I understand?” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Henri. - -“I know that family well,” observed the questioner. “Some of my people -and yours, history tells, had mutual interests in the long ago.” - -“I am very proud of that, sir.” - -“Why, you are quite a young diplomat,” laughed the gentleman behind the -desk. - -“But,” he continued, “it is at the present we are looking.” - -“My dear Anglin,” turning to his ever smiling secretary, “hand me that -portfolio.” - -From the portfolio case the speaker took a sealed packet, closed by red -wax, and tape-wound. - -“In Paris, my dear boy,” addressing Henri, “you will deliver this -to the address written thereon, and,” in impressive tone, “I should -regret exceedingly if it should fall into any other hands than those -authorized to receive it. - -“Remember that! - -“The captain will give you all other necessary instructions. - -“My young friends, permit me to say bon soir.” (Good evening.) - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV. AT THE FRONT DOOR OF PARIS. - - -“You made quite a hit with his nobs,” remarked Billy to Henri when the -party reached the street, and started for the Maritime station. - -“Wasn’t he fine, though!” exclaimed Henri. - -“You’ll find that he has the say when it comes to moving about in -France these times,” asserted the captain. “You’re a lucky lot, I tell -you.” - -“I think we owe you something for all this, captain,” suggested Billy. - -“Oh, well,” replied the captain, “that’s all in the family, anyhow. -There’s a certain old gentleman over in the States who never went back -on me--and you are a down-to-date picture of him, Billy.” - -Josh had given the engine end of the sea-plane a thorough overhauling, -refilled the tanks, and was ready, he claimed, to sail to the moon. - -“Never saw such a hungry place as Calais is now,” he grumbled. “The old -lady running the nearest bakery told me a little while ago that she -never sold so much bread before in all her life, and the ovens couldn’t -half keep up with the demand. I don’t believe, either, that there is a -cupful of milk in the town.” - -“You seem to have fallen down as a grub hunter, old man,” jested the -captain. “But there is no use growling,” he added, “the machine lockers -are pretty full yet.” - -Indeed, there was no immediate danger of the airmen starving. - -Henri was chiefly occupied, during the exchange between the captain and -Josh, in thinking of the new care put upon him in the matter of the -sealed packet, and if it was once, it was twenty times in the hour, -that he clutched at his breast, where the parcel reposed. The carrying -of jewels and gold around his waist he passed as an old experience. It -was merely a habit, now. - -But the mystery about the packet appealed to the boy, and imagination -magnified the trust until it weighed about a ton on his mind. - -The captain had not yet revealed his program of action, and it was with -great difficulty that Henri restrained his growing impatience at the -delay. - -After a hearty attack on the food supply of the sea-plane, the captain, -behind a pipeful of the stoutest tobacco to be found on the continent, -announced that there would be no flying that night. The skipper of a -fishing smack had just brought in the rumor from Dover that several -bombs had been dropped from hostile aëroplanes upon that famous -fortified naval harbor. The skipper had also heard that the damage -inflicted by the bombs was light. The captain, under the circumstances, -could not well afford to take chances with a costly machine that did -not belong to him, by night flight. With such rumors on the wireless -flashing down the coast, there was no telling what might happen to an -aviator who could not show his colors. - -From this it may be surmised that the captain had no instructions to -put the boys on the night express from Calais to Paris. - -“Say, captain, how long do we have to stay here?” - -Henri had set to angling for information. - -“Overnight, anyhow,” briefly replied the captain. The truth of the -matter is, he was secretly enjoying this bit of teasing, and, further, -he was himself in doubt until a certain messenger should arrive with a -wired for permit to use the sea-plane out of designated area. - -Here the magic in the name of the authority to whom the captain had -appealed that day in Calais was first in evidence. Though all people in -the town were forbidden to ride on bicycles after 9 p. m., this rigid -rule then prevailing was apparently not enforced against a wheelman who -arrived at the Maritime station at 10 o’clock, with a yellow envelope -addressed to Captain Johnson. - -The captain read the message, pocketed it, knocked the ashes out of his -pipe, told Josh to set the lights in the floating sea-plane and to take -the first watch, promising relief at 1 o’clock. The friendly skipper -invited them all to spread their blankets on the deck of the smack. - -At dawn the sea-plane splashed a start and took to the air. - -“We’re off for Havre!” - -This from the man at the wheel. - -Havre, at the mouth of the Seine, and the sea-port for Paris, next to -Marseilles the most important in France. - -Henri now had a fair idea of the route they were to follow. - -“It’s simply great of you, captain,” acclaimed Henri. - -“I said ‘near, if not quite,’ you remember,” trumpeted the captain, for -the noise of the flying machine would have drowned any softer sound. - -“Oh, you Havre!” cried Jimmy, when shipmasts loomed like a forest of -bare poles far below. - -With marked precision and care, the captain swung into the port, which -thousands of water-craft entered every year. - -The coming of the sea-plane had evidently been heralded by a swifter -agent of the air, the wonderful wireless, for no sooner had the flying -machine found clear space in the basin, than it was rapidly approached -by a small motor-boat, in which were seated three men, the one looking -out from the elevated bow exhibiting an empty coat sleeve and the -glitter of an honor decoration upon his breast. - -“Is it Rue Castiglione?” he hailed. - -“No; it is Rue de Rivoli,” called the captain. - -Only names of noted boulevards in Paris--and evidently used in -agreement to insure recognition. - -With the uttering of the passwords, there was no further attempt to -speak in riddles. - -“Which of the boys?” - -He of the one arm was closely inspecting the sea-plane company. - -The captain nodded toward Henri. - -“Your hand, young sir,” said he with only one to offer. “I knew your -father before you, and of that I am proud.” - -Henri was beginning to believe that a Trouville could not be lost in -France. - -“Come into the boat,” urged this new found friend. - -“But there are three more to go,” stated Henri. - -“Ah, I see, you have attendants?” - -“Not that, my dear sir; we are all of one rank, and we move on the same -spring.” - -“What you wish is a command,” politely conceded the man in the boat; -“will the four come aboard?” - -“It’s all in the deal,” said the captain, in a low tone to Henri. “I’ll -have to quit here, and you boys are to go on. But it’s good luck and -not good-by that I’m saying now. It’s not far to Dover, you know.” - -When the motor chugged away, the four boys were in it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV. THE FLIGHT UP THE SEINE. - - -The motor-boat swiftly threaded its way into the Seine, guided with the -greatest skill, for it was a crowded waterway, and landing was made at -the base of a stone staircase leading to extensive grounds, surrounding -one of those old time mansions still holding its dignity against the -modern building advances and commercial activity now prevailing in what -was once Havre de Grace, named from a chapel of Notre Dame de Grace, -founded in 1509. - -From a large bay window of an upper room of the mansion, to which the -boys were taken by order of the man with the empty sleeve, they could -see great ship building yards and the tall chimneys of sugar refineries. - -Looking at the tapestry-hung walls, Billy remarked: “This reminds me of -Arras.” - -“Sure, it does,” agreed Henri. “But,” he added, “without the noise of -the big guns.” - -“Wonder if it isn’t train time?” - -Jimmy evidently did not approve of all this ceremony over the short -journey still before them. - -“You’d think it was an affair of state,” he concluded. - -“But you must remember, Jimmy,” advised Henri, “that Paris is something -of a closed town, these days. They are not advertising for visitors -up there, unless they come in uniform, and of the right color. I, for -one, don’t want to be searched,” feeling for the packet inside his -shirt-front, and giving also a tug to the treasure belt. - -“Right you are,” approved Billy, “and when you figure that we haven’t -a passport among us. Mine was soaked to a pulp when that old scow blew -up and strewed the sea with us. I couldn’t this minute prove that I was -from Bangor.” - -“We’re all members of the Don’t Worry club, and we have always -alighted on our feet,” was Henri’s cheerful view. “Besides, we’re -traveling under sealed orders, so to speak, and it’s up to the fellow -who is personally conducting this excursion.” - -The last mentioned personage just then put in appearance, smiling and -making apology for being so long away from his guests. - -“I have some rare good news for you,” he impressively announced--“and a -plan that will be much to your liking, I think”--looking at Henri, and -with a side glance at Billy. - -“The letter from my friend, whose name I shall not mention, and which -monsieur the captain handed to me, I had not read until I left you, and -I knew not until the reading that of the air two of you are masters. -It is splendid, and it so beautifully fits. Pardon the enthusiasm of a -Frenchman, but so superb is the idea, I must speak this way. You shall -go to Paris, not among the locked in of the railway carriages, not in -the cabin of some little steamer--like a bird you shall go. Is it not -grand?” - -Billy had begun to believe that the speaker had stopped too often -in the cafés during the visit downtown, but so convincing was the -statement which followed that he felt sorry for holding such a belief: - -“In this port there have just arrived three of the new military -aëroplanes, so much larger than the little ones that have been sent out -from the forts in Paris for scouting--these bigger ones give room for -an observer to move and signal, and the pilot may attend alone to his -duty of managing the machine. - -“You understand the foreign make?” - -It would evidently have been a sore disappointment to the eager -proposer if the answer were contrary to his hope. - -“They all look alike to us,” assured Henri. - -“Glorious! It is but the one thing, to put together these fine birds, -to fly them to Paris, and when they are there, so you are there. What -benefit for all. Gilbert! Gilbert!” - -Responding to the call of the excitable host, a stocky built youth -with a shock of coal-black hair of such length that it mixed with -his eyebrows, and who had evidently been awaiting the result of the -conference upstairs, sauntered through the doorway. - -“For what would you take him?” - -Billy thought that he would not “take him” at any price for beauty, but -he politely guessed: - -“Artist?” - -“Ah! That is it--he is one artist like yourselves--he is the great -scout of the air. Gilbert LeFane of Rouen.” - -“I fear it is too much honor, monsieur, that you have bestowed upon me. -I but serve.” - -“But what gallant service it is. Permit me now, my dear Gilbert, to -present the youths who also fly with the best, Monsieur Trouville and -Baree, also the young men who travel with them.” - -Jimmy and Reddy felt a couple of inches growth through the tops of -their heads. Billy was thinking how “Baree” would sound in Bangor. - -Gilbert spoke rapidly and to the point. He was here to receive the -aëroplanes which had been specially built for his government. An expert -assistant in assembling these machines was overdue, and it was a matter -of emergency--of great emergency, he emphasized. - -To his patriotic friend, who had so generously praised him a few -minutes before, he had confided his troubles, and this meeting was -arranged. Would the young gentlemen volunteer for this relief service? - -The young gentlemen would--and did, and in less than a day, the new -machines were set to the tune of flight. - -The master of the mansion was a picture of delight over the success of -that which he had brought about, and even cherished a fond hope that he -had permanently added to the flying corps of his beloved France. - -He assured the boys that when they followed Gilbert in the air trip -up the Seine to the capital, it was insuring them a welcome beyond -anything they could have expected--doubly welcome, indeed, with this -and with the endorsement of the power at Calais. - -“I wish I knew how far his knowledge goes regarding the sealed packet -that I am carrying,” thought Henri. - -But about this, Henri discreetly resolved not to ask any questions. - -As to the manner of proceeding on their aërial journey, it was decided, -of course, that Gilbert should lead in one machine, Henri and Reddy in -the second, and Billy and Jimmy in the third. - -They followed the course of the river, as the crow flies, land crossing -and cutting out the big bends, and with never a mishap, so perfectly -were the machines adjusted and so expertly managed--a master hand at -every wheel. - -Billy said to Jimmy that surely Joseph’s coat never had as many buttons -on it as there were towns, little and big, along this line of travel. - -But when he looked down on Paris, on its quays and embankments, on its -magnificent public squares, on its beautiful gardens, on its lofty -towers, all surrounded by twenty-two miles of fortifications, Billy -rested on the guiding wheel in silent admiration. - -The grim visage of war was pale in the distance. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI. THE WAY THAT WENT WRONG. - - -Along the outworks of Paris our Aviator Boys had the delight of -hearing of the war exploits of some of the greatest airmen of their -time, Paulhan, the hero of the English tour from London to Manchester; -Brindejonc des Moulinais, Garros, Vedrines, and last, but not least, -the very Gilbert LeFane, whom they had followed through the air from -Havre to the capital. - -While it had been said that French aëroplanes had never been seen -above the French lines, though many machines of the opposing power -were constantly reconnoitering over the heads of the French soldiers, -it was well known within the circle that this aviation corps had been -operating not only on the German lines, but considerably to the rear of -them, and many and brilliant were the achievements of intimate record. - -Within the first few hours after their arrival in Paris--not the -laughter-loving city of yesterday, but the militant Paris of -to-day--the boys had a glimpse of the military dictator, the commanding -figure of the hour, General Joffre, on whom all France relies--a man of -medium height, stout, with a massive head, thick drooping mustache, -and heavy eyebrows nearly concealing his eyes. - -As Gilbert remarked, “he had an easy-going manner until he sets his -jaws. By the way,” he added, “how would you like to show him what the -new machines can do?” - -To perform before General Joffre! Our Aviator Boys fairly gasped at -the idea. So closely had they been allied with military doings, and so -easily does the war spirit expand by such association, that a great -field commander was just about the very top of the list with them. -Legions gave devotion to General Joffre and General Sir John French. - -From the first line of fortifications, over the enceinte (works forming -the main inclosure), to the detached forts still beyond, there was a -splendid natural theater for the aërial exhibit, 430 square miles thus -enclosed, with an encircling line of 77 miles. - -“These machines are certainly the very ‘last word’ in aëroplane -construction,” observed Henri, when Gilbert, Billy and himself moved -about the hangars engaged in the “tuning up” process. - -“Something like the machine in which young Bainbridge took his last -ride,” recalled Billy. - -In all their lives the boys could never forget that sad incident. - -To demonstrate the passenger-carrying capacity of the new aircraft, -Gilbert was accompanied in the leading flight by a comrade airman, -while Henri took Reddy, and Billy chummed with Jimmy. - -The graceful evolutions, and, particularly, the lightning speed shown -by the up-to-date machines, excited admiration and wonder. Practically -the entire length of the encircling line was traversed in an hour--that -is, 77 miles an hour! - -Jimmy and Reddy had never before traveled like a ball from a cannon, -and even for the practiced aviators it was a little more than their -limit. - -“The general can’t say that there was anything slow about this,” -asserted Billy, when he climbed down from the wheel-seat at the close -of the thrilling performance. - -“It was good work.” - -Gilbert was a man of few words, and he always meant what he said. - -He showed that when he said to Henri and Billy, in his earnest way: - -“The flying corps would count it a big day if your services could be -secured for regular duty.” - -“But we are not ready to settle down yet,” was Billy’s plea. He did not -want to tie himself to any foreign job. - -“It is a temptation,” admitted Henri, “yet I must decide with Billy. -It’s a partnership that won’t break.” - -“And which reminds me,” he went on, “that we have a pressing duty -elsewhere, and now that we have given this day to show our gratitude to -the kind Gilbert, it is very necessary that we hurry on.” - -“All the obligation owing is mine,” stoutly maintained Gilbert; “you -have a thousand times paid for your ride to Paris. Can I do any more -now to get a nearer balance?” - -“Only give us some directions that we want, and for possible need, -something in writing, to ward off suspicious soldiers or gendarmes.” - -Gilbert provided both, and would also have sent a trooper or two with -them had not Henri protested against it. - -He felt that having set out on a secret mission, he was going to play -the game that way. - -It chanced that they must pass through one of the older parts of the -city to reach the destination fixed by the address on the packet. It -also happened, in this time of war, that of vehicles for hire there -were very few running in the central part of the city--and there were -none at all to be seen in these outskirts and wilderness of narrow, -irregular streets. - -Henri had not figured on such a condition as no means of public -conveyance, for it had not yet been fully impressed upon him that this -was not the same Paris he had known in the past. It was now a city -fearful; not a city wonderful. - -Getting lost in this part of Paris, and when the Apache bandits and -ghouls of the night found less restraint and greater need, was no merry -jest. Henri began to vainly wish that he had accepted Gilbert’s offer -of an escort. Billy and himself had encountered so many big things in -the way of danger and peril in the last few months, so many close calls -on land and sea, above and below, that this adventure at first seemed -of little moment. - -Yet the sinister, lurking menace of these silent, shadowy highways and -byways in this beleaguered city was heightened by its very contrast -with the scenes of turmoil in which the boys had participated, and -where death stalked them with open hand. - -“I’m stumped if I know just where Gilbert told me to make the turn that -would set us straight for the Rue de Rivoli. Here’s night come upon us, -and the high lights all out for fear of the Zeppelins, so you really -can’t tell whether you are going or coming. Never thought for a moment -but what we could hail a cab before this.” - -“What’s the matter, then, with turning back, Henri?” questioned Jimmy. - -“Nothing the matter with ‘turning,’” replied Henri, “but where is -‘back’?” - -Jimmy did not know, so he had nothing more to say on the subject. - -The four at the moment were passing a seemingly endless row of -tumble-down tenements. The street was cobbled, or had been many years -ago, and of sidewalks there was hardly a trace. At a far-away crossing -ahead, an imitation of a lamp-post held up the kind of light one might -expect from the fag-end of a candle. Behind, the darkness hung like a -curtain. - -“What a hold-up we would make,” muttered Billy, as he tightened a belt -worth something like a quarter of a million francs. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVII. OUT OF A SPIDER’S WEB. - - -A bundle of rags huddled in the doorway of one of the shaky old houses -took unto itself life and height. In a gargoyle face snaky eyes -balefully glistened at the sight of prey. The boys, who in a moment of -indecision had stopped within earshot of this hideous, hidden thing, -were about to resume their way through this wretched street, in the -scant hope of finding some clew to their whereabouts under the feeble -glow from the dimly distant lamp-post. - -If there had ever been any gendarmes bold enough to regularly patrol -this gruesome thoroughfare, these heroes were certainly not in evidence -now. They must either have gone directly to war or were on guard in -some more prosperous locality. - -In fact, this dilapidated neighborhood appeared to be generally -deserted, for even of prowlers not a one up to the minute had given a -sign of open movement in the long square. - -There had been a lamplighter at the crossing, however, and that was -something on which to hang a belief that there might be more of his -kind further on. - -“Say, Henri, I don’t believe graveyards were mentioned in the -directions Gilbert gave you.” - -“This is no joke, Jimmy, and you would never have seen the like in -Paris if it wasn’t for the war. To save my life, though, I can’t -imagine where all the people that belong here could have gone.” - -“There are some that we might not care to meet after dark,” suggested -Billy. - -As they talked the boys were groping their way over the rough cobbles -toward the one promise--meaning the lamp-post. - -As they passed, single file, the blank front of a tenement where the -crooked street curved inward, a crouching, cat-like something leaped -from the rear upon Henri’s shoulders, and clawing fingers sought his -throat. - -Henri wildly struggling to break the strangle hold of the wiry arms, -and bewildered by the shock of sudden assault, made no outcry, and -Billy, next in line, did not realize for an instant or two what had -happened to his comrade. - -He felt a loose stone under his foot in the worn and broken pavement, -in a second made a weapon of it, and poised alert to strike at the -assailant of his chum. The streak of lamplight was so flickering and -uncertain, and Henri being dragged further and further into the deepest -shadow of the overhanging doorway--the web of the human spider--that -Billy feared to risk a chance blow. - -In the meantime, Jimmy and Reddy, warned by quick ears, had turned to -face the shuffling charge of another creature of the night. There were -more of the spiders, it seemed. - -Billy found an opening to lay a sounding whack with the flat stone on -the back of the writhing thing that hung upon the shoulders of his -friend, and such was the force of the blow that Henri was freed for a -moment from the horrid embrace. - -He struck out blindly for himself and knocked the bundle of rags into a -shrunken heap upon the pavement. The fallen creature uttered an acute, -piercing sound, and slinking shapes responded, front and rear. - -Reddy had used a French close-fighting trick, and planted a kick under -the chin of the assailant with whom Jimmy and himself were contending, -and the English boy made his count with a straight-from-the-shoulder -right blow right on the beak of another onrushing shape. - -“Together, boys! Together!” - -Billy’s fighting blood was up. - -The four closed in, dashed forward several yards and backed against the -door of the tenement just around the curve and where the street ran -straight. This gave them the advantage of all the light the crossing -lamp-post afforded. It was not much, but as Jimmy panted, it “helped -some.” - -The house where the boys presented determined front to the now swarming -human spiders was apparently of a far better class than the tumble-down -hovels in the row around the curve--a contrast so often presented in -the big cities. It rose to a height of four stories, of brick with -stone trimmings. But every shutter in the front was tightly closed, and -if occupied there was no light nor sound to indicate the fact. - -Hemmed in by the menacing circle, the boys mounted heel by heel, never -turning their heads, the stone steps of the house, rising to the wide -and solid oak door with a brass knocker projecting from its panels. - -Here was the last stand against the spider crew--no way of retreat. - -The ragged gang were muttering ugly threats in the mixed language of -the slums, and knives were gripped in every hand. They were preparing -for an overpowering rush upon their prey. - -The boys knew that without other defense than their fists and their -feet they had no show at all to stop an attack in force. - -“Give the high note for help, Reddy.” - -Henri had heard the little Frenchman’s “high note” in the hills of the -Meuse, and it was a ringer. - -Reddy set up a shriek in the still watches of the night that would have -shamed a steam whistle. - -“Secours! Secours!” (Help! Help!) - -The immediate response was the cast of a knife, which whizzed close to -the head of the shrieker and struck, shivering, in a door panel. - -“I’d give something big for a gun,” offered Billy when repeated yells -for help in chorus had counted for nothing. - -“Here they come!” shouted Henri. - -“Let ’em think we’re still in the ring.” - -Billy followed the words by heaving the paving stone, which he had -retained for the finish, into the thick of the leaping spiders. - -Pressed against the door, the boys gave up all hope of escaping the -knives of their assailants. - -Jimmy as a last duty kept the brass knocker thumping like a bass-drum. - -Suddenly the door swung back, the boys fell into the opening like a -cluster of ninepins scattered by a bowling ball, and as quickly the -door slammed shut in the faces of the baffled spiders. The boys heard -the settling sound of heavy bolts in their sockets. - -The hall into which the four had tumbled with so little ceremony was -sable black to the sight, and with the settling of the bolts as silent -as the grave. - -“If this isn’t about the rummest go yet, I don’t know what,” was -Billy’s stage whisper, as he rubbed a bruised elbow. - -“If there’s any next to this, lead me to it quick.” - -Jimmy was finding a deal of swift action since he joined issue with our -Aviator Boys. - -“You have cause to be on your knees to the Power above that you were -delivered from that _canaille_ (mob) outside. They would have left only -your bones for the rats to knaw.” - -Thus were the boys solemnly addressed, in deep voice, by some person -unseen, but near them, in the dark recesses of the hall. - -The speaker was then revealed as he opened a door of a lighted room. - -A man of almost imperial bearing, but white-haired and slightly bent -with age, wearing a skull cap of velvet and a long study gown of the -same material. - -The room into which the boys were invited was typical of the scholar, -the open books on the table, under the shaded lamp, and the hundreds -of volumes displayed in wall-cases. - -Unknown to them, the boys stood in the presence of one of the most -eminent philosophers of the age. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE FORTUNE DELIVERED. - - -“To one of those dictates of the mind for which there is sometimes no -accounting,” gravely stated the scholar, “you owe your lives, my young -friends. Within these walls,” indicating the room by a sweep of the -hand, “I hear no sound. But I was moved to open yonder door, and the -drumming of the knocker drew me to the front entrance. By the cries -for help I knew someone was in distress. At all times the side streets -about here are dangerous for night travel, and in these times there is -no protection at all. You came a strange way, my boys.” - -“I had forgotten that it was not like it used to be,” explained Henri, -“and, too, I made a wrong turn, owing to the fact that the tower lights -no longer serve to guide.” - -“Yes,” continued the scholar, “the new element of warfare, the -death-dealing airships, are responsible for that precaution. But in -the morning my man, Armand, will set you right. He has gone up into -the city for food supplies, and will not return to-night. Rest with me -until then.” - -With the light of day, and it was a glorious sunlit day, the terrors of -the past night folded their wings and disappeared. - -Armand well fitted into such a day; he was a jolly fellow, all smiles -and a waistband that extended a long way ’round. He could not for the -life of him see, he declared, how the boys ever got into queer street, -when the way (to him) was so straight to the big boulevards. He was -full of a story how he had seen some great flying by noted aviators -only the day before. - -“It is wonderful, this flying, is it not?” - -This question as much to promote his enthusiasm as anything else. - -“How fine is that Gilbert,” he rambled on, “and, to think, two young -boys who also traveled the air just like the master.” - -“It just happens, my friend,” said Henri, “that those two boys are -standing close to you this blessed minute.” - -“Mon Dieu!” (Goodness me!) - -Armand was a slave from that minute. - -He must tell the great doctor in the library all about it. And the -great doctor himself also had a second look at his young guests. - -His was a kindly farewell, but he lifted a hand when the boys tried to -thank him for the boon of life he had conferred by his action of the -night. - -“In your prayers, my boys; in your prayers.” - -He turned and shut himself in with his books. - -“You know of this location?” - -Henri read to Armand from the address on the packet. - -“Do I know my name? It is the grand boulevard. And the number--that, -too, is easy.” - -Armand knew his Paris. - -“March on!” Billy giving mock command. - -Reddy’s dream of Paris had first been realized in the form of a -nightmare, but now it ranged to climax of delight--the Place de la -Concorde, one of the largest and most elegant squares in Europe; the -Egyptian obelisk; the magnificent Arc de Triomphe; the column to -Napoleon I; the gardens of the Tuileries; the Louvre; the Art Palace; -the Eiffel tower--just a few of the beauty spots noted in the passing -on that first day when trouble was napping. - -Armand was not only able to secure one cab, but had two at his bidding. -A wonderful fellow was Armand, and much given to style. - -“Here you are,” he announced with a flourish to Henri when the cabs -drew up before a handsome residence, with bronze lions crouching on the -stone rests at each side of the entrance. - -It was agreed that Henri should enter alone with his precious packet, -which delivered and his trust fulfilled, he would be at liberty to seek -his mother and place in her own hands the Trouville fortune that had -been so hardly won from the iron-bound chest in the depths of the now -ruined château on the Meuse. - -With heart beating high, head erect, and feeling the responsible charge -of a messenger of state, Henri applied at the entrance for admission, -and as promptly was admitted. - -“Wish I had a picture of Henri receiving the medal for distinguished -conduct when he gives up the packet.” - -Billy was back in his habit of expressing funny thoughts. - -“It is not the house of the Premier,” said Armand, shaking his head. -“And the government is not sitting in Paris now. It is the private -residence, I am sure.” - -“The private residence” is the French way of saying that you just don’t -know who does live there. - -The minutes passed, and then the half hour. - -“I’m glad,” remarked Billy, “that these are not taxicabs. If they were -we would have to lighten these belts to pay out.” - -“There he is now!” Jimmy had sighted Henri coming out of the house. -Then: - -“Why, he looks like he had just fallen off a Christmas tree.” - -Henri certainly did look as if some great joy had crowned him. - -“Boys, that sealed packet was all a frame-up, arranged by Captain -Johnson and that splendid gentleman at Calais. But it is simply the -finest kind of a frame-up that you could imagine.” - -Henri reached out his hands to his comrades lolling in the cab. - -“Come, climb out.” - -Then to Armand: - -“My friend, I thank you for your good company and your good service. -No--not a word.” - -Henri had slipped something into Armand’s hand. - -As the cabs rolled away, Henri marshaled his friends to the -lion-guarded entrance of the house. - -The aforesaid friends were almost bursting with curiosity. - -“Give us the tip.” - -Billy prodded Henri with his elbow. - -“You’ll know soon enough,” was the unsatisfactory reply. - -Henri led the way into the drawing-room at the left of the entrance. - -Standing there to greet them was a queenly tall gentlewoman with one of -the most sadly sweet faces that the friends of Henri had ever looked -upon. - -In courtesy to the American and the English boy she addressed them in -the language they understood, somewhat haltingly, it is true, but so -graciously that they felt completely at their ease. - -“So you are the brave ones who were with my boy in his every hour of -peril. Would that I could say all that I feel.” - -It was Henri’s mother! - -“Now you see to whom the sealed packet led me.” - -Henri, drawn within his mother’s arm, went on to tell of the surprise -that met him when he first entered the house. - -“I was expecting to be ushered into the presence of some stern-faced -statesman, to hand him this packet with a bow; then to receive some -word of approbation; and, then, to hurry out and hunt for mother. - -“Instead of the ‘stern-faced statesman’ you now know whom I found. -The packet was addressed to C. Giraud. My mother’s maiden name was -Clementine Giraud. I never thought of putting the two together; indeed, -I never even noted the name--only the street and number. The oldest -friend of our family at Calais in this important looking document, -with its seals and ribbons, merely extended his compliments to Madame -Trouville, and wished her joy of his messenger. And another thing, it -provided the captain with authority to land us at Havre. Wasn’t that a -dandy frame-up?” - -Without another word each of the three boys faced about, unbuckled and -pulled the treasure belt from beneath his blouse. Noting the action, -Henri did likewise. - -Then, gently guiding his mother to a chair, where he enthroned her as a -queen, he laid the four belts in her lap. - -The Trouville fortune had been saved! - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIX. THE CALL OF THE AIR. - - -The call of the air and action was again insistent. Our Aviator Boys -grew restless with leisure, though it could be imagined that they had -well earned a season of rest. Only the regret of Henri to leave his -mother held them quiet even so long as a couple of weeks. - -As to Jimmy, he was hankering for submarine service, and only Reddy had -the Paris fever. He wanted to live out his dream. - -What a gala occasion it was, then, the day that Captain Johnson and -Josiah Freeman pressed with their brogans the pavement of Rue de -Rivoli, and brought the news that another brand new sea-plane had -slapped the face of the Seine two hours previous. - -“The testing and exhibition work has grown a little too much for Uncle -Josh and myself,” was the captain’s first after-dinner remark, when -Madame Trouville had laughingly accorded him the privilege of smoking a -cigarette. Henri and Billy did most of the laughing, however, when the -captain really tackled the cigarette. - -“As I was saying,” went on the captain, “it is not in the pins that we -can train two of the planes at the same time--and we have three now in -the hangars at Dover that must have our warrant. Now I know,” waxing -confidential, “a pair of likely young men who could, with a reminder or -two, fill the bill to perfection.” - -“Are they at present in France?” - -Henri passing the wink to Billy. - -“Oh, go on there, now,” bluffed the captain. - -“I know who you mean,” clamored Jimmy, who at times was seriously -English. - -“You’re a genius, my boy,” put in Josh. - -“Well, and out with it, the very boys are here, and guying their old -friend for attempting suicide with a cigarette.” - -“Is it a go?” - -“It is.” - -One voice from both Henri and Billy. - -“I suppose it will have to be,” sighed Madame Trouville. - -“Don’t worry, mother,” Henri meekly submitting to the hair-stroking -process, “we’ll never get hurt if we keep off the ground.” - -“That’s the way for an aviator to talk.” - -The captain’s approval was hearty. - -“It’s in the morning, my boys, that the good airship leaves for Dover.” - -“And I’ll get a lift, won’t I?” - -“You’ll be set down in Dover, Jimmy, as sure as shooting. How about -this youngster?” turning to Reddy. - -“He has enlisted as guard for mother,” explained Henri. “You can’t tear -him away from Paris.” - -“Good-night all,” said the captain, making a move to go, after signal -to Josh. - -“But you’re going to stay here to-night,” urged Henri. - -“No, thank you, my boy, Freeman and I have the ‘plane’ to look after, -and we’re not used to gilded beds, anyhow.” - -The truth of the matter was the captain and Josh had each a blackened -briar pipe in his pocket that would have spoiled before morning. - -Gilbert was among the crowd that had assembled at the river front the -next morning to see the big airship make its getaway. - -He was made an honored guest aboard the craft and was greatly -impressed with the tremendous power stored in the sea-plane. - -“It is a big advance over anything I have ever seen in this -construction, and, think of it, a ship within a ship.” - -The great airman had parting words with Henri and Billy: - -“If you ever have the notion to fly for France, the wireless will be -all too slow to bring me the word.” - -Ten minutes later the sea-plane was in full flight. - -On this trip Captain Johnson and Engineer Freeman joined Jimmy in the -passenger list. Billy was at the wheel and Henri at the motor end. - -This was the order until the sea-plane finally took to its floats in -Dover harbor. - -“You have won your certificates as English air navigators. My word and -my hand on it.” - -The captain spoke the word but he used his hand to slap the boys -between the shoulders. - -“Now, my young submarinist, I don’t suppose you’re going to let us -teach you the business.” - -“I guess not, captain; I think I prefer the other game, though you’ve -got a good one. I hate to quit the band, though, I tell you.” - -Jimmy looked for a minute like he was going to cry. - -Henri and Billy made a show of being cheerful to help Jimmy out, but -it was not much of a success. - -“Look alive, youngsters, you’ll be running together in Dover right -along.” - -The captain was a good sympathizer. - -It was a long time thereafter, however, until the band was reunited, -for the submarine boy went north in a torpedo boat destroyer, and our -Aviator Boys went--but that’s another story. - -For several weeks the boys--only two of them now--listened to daily -lectures from the captain and Freeman on the fine points of sea-planing. - -“You must remember that you are going to be demonstrators and -instructors--you’re not just plain aviators any more,” jollied the -captain. - -“When you go out alone in the cold world--aloft I mean--it is just -as well to know just what to do in any weather. You may never have -a chance to correct an error if it occurs five thousand feet from -nowhere.” - -The boys evidently never forgot the captain’s advice, for they lived to -report all the mistakes they made. - -Day after day the young airmen drilled as pilot and engineer, one time -in one position, and one time in another, change about. Billy was -regular as pilot, but the captain insisted that each could take the -place of the other if emergency demanded. - -“You are both qualified for aëroplane work, fore and aft, but you must -remember that a sea-plane is a bigger proposition, and I want you to be -top-notchers. You get me?” - -“We ought to be able to get you, captain, for this is the eighty-eighth -time this week that you have said the same thing.” - -“All right, Billy, I’m stopping on the eighty-eighth. I think you’ll -both do.” - -The next day the boys were ordered to speed a sea-plane to London. - - - - -CHAPTER XL. CAPTURED BY THE GERMANS. - - -One fine morning a great airship was discovered by Londoners floating -over the Admiralty Arch. Now it was well known that guns had been -mounted on the Admiralty Arch and on the roof of the War Office and -several of the other larger buildings. The purpose of these guns was, -of course, to repel hostile airships, about which London had become -decidedly nervous. - -These guns, however, had no occasion to bang at this aërial visitor, -for it was known by those on the inside that this craft was not going -to drop any bombs on the big town, but simply, on order, drop itself -into the Thames, which in navigable importance has been pronounced the -greatest river in the world. - -There was no doubt many a hysterical outburst regarding the big -aircraft, but as nothing was blown up during its hovering period, there -was consequently nothing to tell a policeman about. - -This particular airship was conducted by our Aviator Boys--Billy Barry -and Henri Trouville, or Henri Trouville and Billy Barry, as you please, -according to who was at the wheel. It happened that Billy was working -his regular trick as pilot on this London visit, and it was the first -journey of importance that Henri and himself had been in sole command -of a sea-plane--the largest of its kind. - -It being a peaceful or commercial mission, there was no gunner in the -bow, and no wireless operator sat in the center of the hull. Just -Billy, fore, and Henri, aft. A small crew, but a crew trained to the -minute. - -The sea-plane, by signal, took to the river a short distance below -London Bridge, in the dock region, where there was a total water area -of some 600 acres. - -On the occasion of the official visit to the sea-plane, as it floated -near the docks, the inspecting officers, one and all, looked their -astonishment upon the size of the crew, physically as well as in point -of number. - -They looked at the craft and they looked at the boys and they looked at -each other. - -But when the crew took up the matter of detail and explanation, -so thorough was the review they gave, that the officers ceased to -wonder that these agents had been selected and entrusted with so much -responsibility. - -“This is about the only thing we do not have occasion to handle in this -craft,” said Billy, as he swiveled in all directions the machine gun in -the bow. - -“It’s a handy little barker,” observed one of the officers, who -evidently knew all about guns. - -Having completed their inspection and notes, a senior officer asked -Billy if the crew went with the craft. - -“Until it is sold, only,” was Billy’s prompt reply. - -“Sorry,” added the officer, “that we can’t have you in the balance.” - -“We have traveled with three fighting flags since we have been flying -around on this side of the ocean. It keeps us guessing what will be the -next.” - -Henri was repeating what he had said to the captain just before leaving -Dover. - -“Have an eye out, or the Germans will get you yet,” smilingly warned -the senior officer. - -“Who knows?” thought Billy. - -The inspecting officers extended the freedom of the town to the young -aviators, but it was necessary for them to return to Dover immediately, -and having assurance that there had been nothing left undone connected -with their mission, they took flight that afternoon, fixing their -course from the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the most conspicuous -building in the metropolis. - -When they reached Dover the captain had a story that a few days ago -one of the destroyers had picked a German sea-plane out of the channel -waters off Harwich, and it had been announced that it carried a freight -of bombs, which were destroyed. The two men who formed its crew had -blandly refused to give any information as to their plans. - -“And while I can’t swear to the story,” averred the captain, “it gave -me some worry about you. That kind of thing is pretty close.” - -“Never saw another thing in the air that could catch us,” chirruped -Billy. - -“Don’t you go to singing yourself into the idea that your ship is -the only thing afloat, my boy. The Germans have a few good birds -themselves.” - -The captain never figured out of reason. - -Billy and Henri soon after had an experience above the Straits which -convinced them that they were not the only speeders on the course, and -confirmed the captain’s opinion. - -They had been flying through a North Sea mist and had just lifted to a -clearing when Billy, peering sideways around the rising bow, saw the -nose of another airship dart out from the sheltering mist. Sharp around -Billy twisted the wheel to save collision, and endeavored to swing away -from the intended attack of the German crew. Henri set the engines to -their maximum power, but it was too late to avoid the shot from the -fore gun of the opposing aircraft. There was a ripping and rending of -rods and stays. Billy turned the planes for the fall, and down they -went, their stricken craft helpless and beyond control. - -Striking the water, the damaged seaplane settled like a bird with a -broken wing. - -The craft from which the shot had been fired dived down to complete a -capture, and Billy and Henri, seeing the folly of attempting to resist -a stalwart crew of four, promptly surrendered. - -“You ought to be spanked and put to bed, you naughty boys,” admonished -the giant pilot of the German craft, when he noted the youth of his -captives. - -“But I guess you are smart enough,” he admitted, “or you could not have -made the play you did to get away. If it had not been for the gun we -might have been fooled. - -“Give them room there, Franz, maybe we can find places for them in the -service.” - -So they climbed aboard the big German flyer without a word, fully -determined, however, that they would not enter the service of Germany -any more than they had entered the service of England and France; but -very thankful to the good-natured Teutons who had rescued them after -plunging them into the sea. - -Captain Johnson watched for his flying boys in vain, and when at last -the wrecked seaplane was towed in from the North Sea by an English -vessel he gave them up for lost. - - - - -CHAPTER XLI. THE BOYS PUT ON THE GRAY. - - -When our Aviator Boys had been crowded into small space aboard the -German seaplane, the big flyer cut through the mist at top speed. The -capture of the young airmen had been but an incident; an accident, -indeed. The German aviators were playing a bigger game. The boys heard -the man called Franz jesting with his comrades about something that -was going to spit fire like a volcano upon the English. Henri, in soft -aside tones, let Billy know what it was all about, for Billy was as -short in German as he was in the French language. - -The seaplane gunner (they called him Joseph), when the machine soared -above the mist line, kept a sharp lookout through field glasses for -some expected coming over the sea. - -The boys could see, now that it was clearing to the north, the familiar -trend of the English coast. - -“They’re up to something, that’s sure,” whispered Henri to Billy; “but -what it is I haven’t the least idea.” - -“I don’t see any bombs in this craft, so it can’t be anything like a -blow-up from above,” was Billy’s whispered reply. - -“Hold your mouths,” growled the giant pilot. - -Henri put a warning finger on his lips, glancing at Billy. - -Gunner Joseph had evidently sighted the something for which he had -been looking, for he made a rapid motion with a hand behind him, which -the pilot evidently understood, for he immediately changed the direct -northerly course of the seaplane sharply to the northeast. - -Now visible to the naked eye was a fleet of cruisers, under full head -of steam, and as they swiftly approached, the black cross in the -flapping colors proclaimed the Kaiser’s warships. - -Billy and Henri were astounded at the sight. A German fleet within easy -shelling distance of the Yorkshire coast! - -One of the cruisers turned broadside, and from the armored hull -belched smoke and flame. Looking down upon the town of Hartlepool, -the boys saw buildings crumple like houses of cards before a gale. -Other vessels of the war fleet followed the leader in broadsides, and -every iron cast seemed to find a mark and exacted toll of death and -destruction. The Hartlepools, Whitby, and Scarborough, places well -known to the captive aviators, were under galling fire for an hour. - -“They’re shooting a mile, but look how true they get the range,” -remarked Billy in Henri’s nearest ear. - -“Look!” Henri pointed to the land batteries, now spouting fiery -responses. - -The German fleet was speeding northward--the hovering seaplane giving -signal that the British patrolling squadron was hastening to cut -off the invading vessels. Now favored by the gathering mist in the -northerly flight, the daring raiders made their escape, but it could be -seen that one of the lighter cruisers was afire. The land batteries had -evidently scored a target or two. - -A guttural command from the man in the sea-plane’s bow, and the machine -was set in the wake of the fleet, and with full power in the motors. - -“How much of the oil feed have we?” - -The gunner’s question was passed back from mouth to mouth to the engine -man, for in the noises of the high speed nothing else could be heard -beyond a foot or two. - -“Hundred miles or so,” was the answer of the engine man, passed forward. - -“And nearly four hundred miles to Kiel,” muttered the gunner. “But the -fleet will put us right,” he satisfied himself. - -So they were bound for Kiel, and the boys did not know it until the -seaplane settled among the German cruisers churning the waves in their -race for home. With tanks refilled, the aircraft led the flight to -Helgoland Bay. - -While far in advance of the warships, the sea-plane drew the fire of -an English submarine that suddenly rose from the depths of the sea. A -figure jumped from the turret of the underwater craft, turned a lever, -and the gun that was folded into the back of the submarine swung muzzle -upward. Once, twice, thrice, the gun cracked, but every shot a miss. - -The third shot, however, was a near one, for Billy and Henri, -interested spectators from the steel gallery, heard the ball hiss in -the passing. - -The lookout man of the seaplane trailed a signal to the fleet, but the -submarine had disappeared before the cruisers had warily crossed the -danger spot indicated by the seaplane. - -“It would have been good-by if we had caught that solid shot in the -business section of this ship,” was Billy’s essay to the stolid pilot -in front of him. - -If the pilot heard or understood, he did not condescend to answer. - -Some forty miles from the German naval stations in the neighborhood of -Helgoland, the sea-plane’s own gun was swiveled in the direction of a -darting aëroplane scouting from some English warship, on the watch in -these waters, but when the machine guns on one of the German cruisers, -adapted to high-angle fire, broke loose on the British machine, it -turned tail at a speed of seventy miles an hour. - -Franz appeared to be greatly amused at this, and started a rapid flow -of German humor about the high-dodging machines made somewhere else -than in Germany. - -Henri did not tell Billy what all the fun was about, for fear of -bringing Billy to his feet with an argument as to where the best flying -machines were made. But it would not have made any difference, for -Franz and Billy were both assured of personal peace, in that neither -could understand the other, though they talked until doomsday. - -The boys had no fixed idea as to what fate had in store for them on -German soil. - -“I do hope that it won’t be a military fortress for us,” said Henri. -“It would be mighty rough luck to be locked up at Cologne, or some -other jail of a place.” - -“But you remember the pilot said when we were caught that they might -find a place for us in the aviation service.” - -Billy found comfort in that memory. - -“If I couldn’t have anything else to do but carry oil around a hangar,” -asserted Henri, “it would sure be away ahead of looking at the stone -walls of a fortress.” - -It was a happy moment, then, for our Aviator Boys when at Helgoland -they were told by the giant pilot of the seaplane, whose name proved to -be Carl, that they were booked, not now for Kiel, but Hamburg, which -was the center of great aircraft activity. - -“No dungeon deep for us,” sang Billy, as he executed a clog step on the -deck of the boat that later was taking them up the great river Elbe to -one of the most remarkable cities of Germany. - -“An aircraft town for sure,” cried Henri, when, with Carl as kindly -captor and guide, Billy and himself fared forth from the docks into the -streets of Hamburg. - -In an hour the boys saw eleven sheds, each said to contain a Zeppelin, -and at the air camp all manner and makes of aëroplanes were housed. - -It was here that Carl presented his charges to Heinrich Hume, aviation -lieutenant, who conducted the new recruits to a mammoth canvas house, -where both aëroplanes and aëroplanists rest, when there is a chance to -rest. - -Billy had another pleasurable shock when Lieutenant Hume, in good old -English, abruptly told Henri and himself to shake themselves out of -their blue flannel outfits, and dive into a big camp chest filled with -clothing of the lead color. - -“Don’t mind the blue,” advised the lieutenant, “but it doesn’t mate -with the other moving pictures here.” - -“We don’t have to be sworn in, or anything like that?” anxiously -inquired Billy. - -“You’re more likely to be sworn at than in,” laughed the lieutenant. -“Now to the point: Do you know enough about aëroplanes to roll one with -the right end foremost? Carl says you kids were working an armored -seaplane when they plugged you, but Carl is sometimes inclined to draw -the long bow about adventures in which he has figured.” - -Billy was inclined to hump his back at this, but wisely concluded to -let action stand as the proof. - -When Billy and Henri went to work among the ’planes, the apprentices -under training by Lieutenant Hume looked like the oft-quoted thirty -cents. One or two of them even looked daggers at the newcomers. - -At the end of the first day of the boys’ service test, the lieutenant -said to himself: - -“Carl has stumbled against the real thing, for once, at least.” - - - - -CHAPTER XLII. FOUGHT TO THE FINISH. - - -The boys awaited patiently an invitation from the lieutenant to exhibit -their skill by upper-air exercise in one of the Taubes--the Germans -called their military monoplanes doves--but that officer did not seem -then inclined to favor one of the aviation field helpers above another. - -A shock-headed boy, hailed as Max, who had been an ironworker in -Bremen, showed a decided disposition to “pick upon” Henri and Billy in -their daily occupation of valeting the aircraft. - -He was nursing a jealous spirit, aroused by a chance word of praise -bestowed upon our Aviator Boys by Lieutenant Hume, and tried to enlist -the sympathy of the other employees of the hangars in common cause -against the “fancy fellows,” as he persisted in calling the newcomers. -But as a rule they were a good-natured lot, and not inclined to worry -about anything except a food shortage at meal time. - -Max, before our boys had arrived, had claimed rank as first among those -serving the more noted aviators, who were constantly coming and going. - -The climax of wrath with Max came when Ingold, the great aviator, -starting for the war zone, dispensed with his clumsy services and -accepted those of Billy and Henri in overhauling a double-decker, or -biplane, that was to be used in active military movement. - -“You’ll get a cracked head for this,” hissed Max, when the lieutenant -and the big airman had passed out of hearing. - -Billy, to whom the threat was addressed, did not understand the words, -but he guessed from the attitude of the threatener that something ugly -was intended. - -So Billy, who never counted fear a burden worth the bother, simply -grinned, turned, and went on with his work of tuning the biplane. - -Henri, tinkering at the motor end of the machine, looked up just in -time to see Max, wrench in hand, poised to strike at the back of -Billy’s head. - -“Look out, Billy!” - -The warning cry from Henri saved Billy from a stunning blow on the -head, but he caught the jolt from the wrench on his right shoulder, as -he swiftly faced about. - -With a good left uninjured, however, Billy gave Max a short-arm jab -in the neck, at the chin, that tumbled the would-be slugger upon the -packed earth floor of the hangar. - -“Good arm!” exclaimed Henri. “But how about the other?” - -With the question, Henri gently worked his comrade’s right arm up and -down to see if there was any hitch in the shoulder where the wrench had -landed. - -“Not a chance for a surgeon,” assured Billy. “Just a little -numb--that’s all.” - -Max slowly gathered himself up from the ground, with a hand on his jaw, -and a vicious glitter in his eyes. - -“It will be to the finish next time.” - -His tone was full of menace. - -“What’s he saying?” inquired Billy. - -Henri translated. - -“Tell him,” said Billy, “that the day and the hour is his very own to -name, so long as he comes in the front way.” - -Henri did not comply with this request, but hooked arms with Billy, and -walked him away. - -This was the glove in the ring that led to one of the liveliest -lightweight come-togethers that the aviation camp boys had ever -witnessed. - -Neither Henri nor Billy had mentioned the wrench incident to the -lieutenant. They were too self-reliant for that kind of business. There -was nothing, either, to induce Max to relate his sorry part in the -hangar scrap. - -It was not until several days later that Henri was approached by a lad -with the name handle of Jacob. The latter was apparently not a willing -messenger. - -“Max wants a fight with your friend,” he explained, “and if it was me -he couldn’t get it, for he’s a tricky one and as strong as a bull. But -I just had to do this to get rid of him.” - -“You tell that fellow that we don’t want anything to do with him,” was -Henri’s message to the challenger. - -The next morning, while many of the machines were aloft in practice and -test flights, and the aviation helpers were grouped at the far end of -the parade ground, Max deliberately called Billy an unbearable name, -and followed the insult with a ringing slap on the cheek of the boy -from Bangor. - -The fat was in the fire! - -Instantly the circle widened, and in the center two husky youngsters -went at it hammer and tongs. - -There were no gloves, no seconds, and no referee with rules up his -sleeve. - -Billy ruled a strong favorite, but Henri alone made a noise about -it, for the others were reluctant to take a chance of offending Max, -unless they were assured in advance that he was going to be thoroughly -whipped. - -It certainly did not appear that way in the opening of the bout, for -Max had gashed Billy’s forehead with a full knuckle blow, and also -landed a rib-cracker on the latter’s body. - -Billy now sparred warily, seeking time to recover from the body blow, -which had proved the most serious, though the bleeding bruise on the -forehead made the most show of injury. - -He kept his antagonist on the move, at the same time keeping out of -range of the fists swinging like windmills. Max had the strength, and a -certain skill as a rough-and-tumble fighter, but he also had too much -flesh on his bones, and little science as a boxer. - -Billy was as clean built as a greyhound, muscled like a young -gladiator, and learned where to hit and how to hit under an old master -of the craft in Boston. - -“Take your time, Billy,” encouraged Henri, “he’s a beef, and you’ll get -him all right.” - -Henri’s blood was running warm at the sight of his chum’s bruised face, -and he would have violently resented any attempt to interfere in what -he firmly believed would result in payment in full by the loose fighter -who had provoked the battle and inflicted first injury. - -Max began to exhibit distress from his exertions, which had ceased to -count since the opening onslaught. He struck hard, but he struck at -random. Enraged at the useless and wearing practice of hitting at -something where it was not, the panting slugger made the break to get -under Billy’s guard and clinch. It was a grievous error for him. - -Billy, keen-eyed, caught him coming, and nothing but daylight between a -ready fist and the knockout point of a square chin. - -Biff! There was everything behind that blow in the way of steam. - -The Bremen lad had been coming too fast for the impact to hurl him -backward. He simply sagged at the knees, and dropped in a heap. - -The fight was over, but not all of the trouble. Billy rushed to the -side of his fallen foe, who, showing the whites of his eyes and -rattling the breath in his throat, was viewed with alarm by the -witnesses of the exciting mill. - -“Give him air,” hoarsely urged the victor to the crowding white faces. - -Henri ran to a platform nearby where water buckets were placed, and the -chums gave all of the first aid in their experience to the vanquished. - -Max, directly, recovered consciousness, and raised his head and dazedly -looked about him. Finding that his head was pillowed in Billy’s lap, -Max struggled to free himself from the sheltering embrace of the arm -that put him down and out. - -Recovering speech, the way he expressed his chagrin and humiliation -was enough to make the air blue. - -Jacob told him that he ought to be satisfied now, and Billy offered -truce by extended hand. Max, however, was far from the mood that finds -any consolation in defeat. - -“Here comes the lieutenant,” announced Henri; “we’d better skip, Billy, -and patch up that face of yours before we are put on the question rack.” - -All the boys scattered in pairs, or several more together, except Max, -and he walked alone, brooding, sullen, and implacable. - -Billy had been washed clean of blood and holding a washer-plate of cold -steel against the bump on his forehead, when Jacob came into the hangar -with the information that the lieutenant had been calling for his pair -of late recruits, and wanted them forthwith. - -“He’s heard about the fight,” was Henri’s first surmise. - -“Do I look like a pug?” Billy inquired, lifting the plate from the -bruised spot. - -“You will likely go into training on bread and water,” gloomily -predicted Henri. - -“Oh, quit croaking,” advised Billy. “Come ahead, and we’ll take the -medicine, whatever it is.” - -The lieutenant was framed in the flaps of his canvas house when the -boys presented themselves for supposed correction. - -The officer calmly inspected the recruits through the smoke that -wreathed around the bowl of his meerschaum. - - - - -CHAPTER XLIII. SETTING OF A DEATH TRAP. - - -“I’ve been getting a line on you.” - -When the lieutenant delivered himself thusly the boys were sure and -positive that he had all the details of the fight, and wonder only -was left as to how serious a breach of discipline the officer would -consider a battering match on the parade ground. - -What was their surprise, then, when the lieutenant went on to say, -aiming the stem of his meerschaum at a group of officers--high officers -apparently--which at the moment made a ground circle of slim, polished -boots about a Zeppelin taking in its flying cargo of gas: - -“Colonel Muller, over there, has just been telling me the story of -a couple of boys he met in America who beat anything of the age in -the matter of expert flying. I mentioned that the crew of one of -our seaplanes had picked up a pair of kids who, they claimed, were -navigating alone in an airship big enough to keep the best of them -guessing. The colonel has expressed a wish to look you over. He’s great -for aviation.” - -“Gee! I believe that this Muller was with Colonel McCready when we -made that record flight in Texas. You remember, the tall one, with the -monocle, and hair and mustache the color of a ten-dollar gold piece.” - -The lieutenant had walked down the canvas row to ascertain the further -wishes of the colonel, giving Billy this chance to search the memories -of his chum and himself. - -“Come to think of it,” replied Henri, “I do recall seeing a man like -that, but it is no sure shot that it is the same one.” - -“We’ll soon know, anyhow.” - -Billy saw the lieutenant raise a beckoning finger, and the boys hurried -to present themselves. - -Facing Colonel Muller, the boys, in their ill-fitting gray tunics and -rawhide boots, hardly hoped for recognition. They knew their man in an -instant. - -The colonel had a long memory, too, for he immediately exclaimed: - -“Hello there, Boy Aviators, as Colonel ‘Mac’ called you; you’re a long -way from home, I see.” - -It was a matter of pride and satisfaction to the boys that the big -soldier could place them, even in the disguise of an aviation camp -outfit. - -Turning to the lieutenant, the colonel inquired: “Have you put these -youngsters through the paces yet?” - -“No, colonel,” replied the lieutenant, “they have been working in the -oil-can brigade chiefly, but from the way they handle the parts I -suspected they were out of the apprentice class.” - -“Why, they are builders as well as demonstrators,” explained the -colonel. “Teach them anything about aircraft? I guess not.” - -By this time all of the officers were sizing up the objects of the -colonel’s unusual comment. - -The helpers, with open mouths, had gathered at a respectful distance, -but near enough to hear what was going on, and marveled that the -great colonel should condescend to familiar terms with boys whom they -claimed as of their class and number. Max, the malignant, was in the -front row, and none the happier for the new honors conferred upon the -fellow-workers whose very presence galled him. - -“Trim them up a bit,” said the colonel to the lieutenant, pointing to -the slop-chest clothing in which the boys were attired, “and send them -over to headquarters this evening.” - -“You’ve made a ten strike,” observed the lieutenant, as he sent the -boys to a military clothier in the town with a written rush order. - -“We could register from Annapolis now and get across with it,” laughed -Billy, as they awaited the pleasure of an orderly at headquarters. The -boys had been “trimmed up a bit,” and neatly garbed in gray looked as -fine as middies on parade. - -“Ah, here you are; come in,” invited the colonel. “Gentlemen,” turning -to others in the room, “here are the young airmen about whom I was -talking. This aviation business, I confess, is a hobby with me. Why, -just think of boys this age not only able to completely assemble -one of these wonderful machines, but to drive them, under ordinary -circumstances, so expertly that safety aloft is about as equally -assured as in a railway journey. - -“Behold one of the natural enemies of your craft,” continued the -colonel, directing the boys’ attention to a smart-looking young -soldier, a lean, keen fellow, with captain’s straps, lounging on a sofa -nearby. “He’s a fellow who turns balloon cannon loose on about every -plane that hasn’t a black cross on its yellow stomach. That’s one of -the reasons why a military aviator would have as much chance of getting -life insurance at Lloyd’s as would a snowball of holding together in -the furnace room of a cruiser.” - -“We’ve seen some of the steel noses turned up at us,” volunteered Billy. - -“Don’t believe they were exactly of my kind,” interposed the gunman on -the lounge. “These are new ones, just out, and they reach further than -any other make. We can haul them around at the tail of an automobile at -the speed of about sixty miles an hour. Come along when we pull out of -here and I’ll show you what a spin of a wheel will do in aiming the -little daisy on the steel truck.” - -“Don’t let him ever catch you asleep on your perch,” joked the colonel, -“or there will be a bird funeral in the aviation family.” - -When the lieutenant passed the word among the helpers to hustle the -aëroplane shipment, it was noticeable that Billy and Henri served no -longer in the pulling and hauling end of the job. They were held at -the elbow of the directing force, and vested with the power to give -orders in the hangar instead of taking them. This change of class met -with no rebellion among the apprentices, for they reckoned that the -newcomers must be of extraordinary ability to be so quickly advanced, -and, further, it was soon recognized that even the lieutenant had no -aircraft knowledge superior to his young assistants. - -“I believe,” acknowledged this officer, “that I have you beaten in only -one branch of the profession, the Zeppelin branch, I mean, and that, -I suppose, is only due to the fact that this invention is exclusively -German.” - -“That’s mighty kind of you to say this,” returned Henri, “but Billy -and I feel that you can yet set us straight on a good many points in -these foreign planes, and we would be glad to have a chance to dig into -Zeppelin instruction.” - -“I don’t know about that last,” was the uncertain answer of the -lieutenant. - -“What’s the matter with Max, I wonder,” observed Henri, as the last -crate of the shipment was rolled down to the docks; “he must be raising -a pair of wings on his shoulders.” - -“If you had seen the side glance he gave me to-day, you would leave the -wings out of your calculations.” - -Billy felt that Max quiet was more to be feared than Max boisterous. - -“Sorry to see Colonel Muller leave, I tell you.” - -“So was I, Henri; but he said that only a bullet would prevent our -meeting again.” - -The colonel had also told Billy that Henri and himself had only entered -the side door of Germany, and there was a big chance of their seeing -more of the country. - -Among the several satisfactory results of their reunion with the -colonel, one bobbed up that very afternoon, when Lieutenant Hume stated -that a new lot of machines were to be set up and jockeyed, and, as -nearly all of the aviators had gone with the last shipment, the boys -could take a turn in the air every day, if they so desired. - -“If they desired!” Did thirsty ducks need a second invitation to visit -a pond? - -As there were no double-deckers, or biplanes, in the fresh invoice, -Billy and Henri were to work separately in the war monoplanes, those -with the birdlike wings and curved tail rudder piece, the smaller -birds that whirred and whined. - -Two of these machines had been carefully groomed and set in order for -an early morning flight, and the boys retired with all the assurance -in the world that they could give the helpers such a practical -illustration of scientific planing that there would remain no doubt -in the minds of these groundlings as to the merit and right of the -newcomers’ promotion. - -Silence reigned in the house of canvas, and no hostiles to guard -against, sentinels were not stationed, and only occasional inspection -required during the night. - -It was midnight. Stealthy hands parted the flaps of the entrance to -the big tent, and a stocky figure, but light-footed, darted across the -floor of hardened clay to the stalls where the monoplanes were set for -motion. - -An electric light tube flashed into a box of tools, and the intruder -was speedily operating with a chisel at the propeller end of the -monoplane, in which was placed the repair kit, numbered 16--charged in -the hangar record to one Billy Barry. - -The furtive visitor, apparently satisfied that he had accomplished -his purpose, replaced the chisel and closed the tool box. He took the -further precaution of picking up every chip or shaving that had dropped -during the use of the chisel edge. Then, with a final sweep of the -electric tube, the stocky shape flitted through the canvas door into -outer darkness. - -Would that there was some warning word in dreamland to sound in the ear -of sleeping Billy Barry. An assassin hand had set a death trap with -cunning intent to conceal the peril therein until a moment too late to -baffle the devilish design! - - - - -CHAPTER XLIV. A LIFE IN THE BALANCE. - - -Billy lifted a ruddy face from a bucket of ice-cold water, in which he -had been taking a waking dip, and then yanked Henri by the heels out of -a warm blanket nest. - -“Get up, lazybones, and let’s be scraping the sky. It’s a good six -o’clock, and the cook’s all in a fume about the breakfast getting cold.” - -Henri caught the spirit of his companion, and both gave way to joyful -anticipation of a twenty-mile dash in a pair of monoplanes. - -They attempted to waltz with the cook, but neither could reach even -a quarter way around the waist of this rotund Wilhelm, and if the -latter’s legs had not been so much shorter than his waistband it is -likely that the skylarkers would have received several jars from a -ham-like foot. - -Capering like colts, the boys headed for the hangar, and with the -assistance of Jacob and another helper, early on the ground, the -machines were rolled out to make their buzzing start for high places. - -When Billy had removed kit number 16 from his monoplane he hopped into -his seat on the frame. Henri was already settled for flight. - -The run-off, however, was postponed for a minute or two so that the -aëroplanists could watch the rise of a Zeppelin directly in front of -them. - -“Let ’er go,” sang Billy, and both monoplanes got away together. - -The Zeppelin had just swung around in the great arc of a circle, and -the boys in the monoplanes were sailing immediately above the great -cylinder. Henri had just turned a swift glance at his companion -aviator, with intent of setting the direction of flight, when--and the -horror of it--Billy’s machine suddenly stopped in midair, wabbling like -a cradle, and before the young aviator’s desperate attempt to retain -control could prevail the machine turned upside down, and the boy from -Bangor hung by the knees from the tumbling frame. - -Henri would have cried aloud in agony of spirit--but he was as one -stricken dumb. He almost spelled death for himself by letting go of -the controls of his machine. - -But what a sight for his staring eyes! - -The falling monoplane had struck athwart the aluminum envelope of the -Zeppelin, and, though the bigger craft trembled from stem to stern with -the shock, it held its way, buoyed up by the gas chambers on each side -of the cylinder. Billy soon rested safely on one of the platforms, -cheered by members of a rejoicing crew. - -Henri found his voice again, and, shouting like a madman, he sent his -monoplane darting toward the earth, and if he failed to land in his -usual beautifully precise way he was there when the Zeppelin brought -back to him that “dear old Billy.” - -The lieutenant, hastily responding to summons, found his two expert -aviators hugging one another, and the crew of the Zeppelin critically -inspecting a damaged monoplane grounded between its mate and the big -ship. - -“What’s the matter here?” nervously demanded the lieutenant. - -“It looks like foul play is the matter,” shortly responded the chief -officer of the Zeppelin. He was not a member of Lieutenant Hume’s -command. - -“You’re right,” exclaimed the lieutenant with an oath, as he knelt to -more closely inspect the chiseled propeller and the spiked rudder. -Turning to Billy, and in severe manner: - -“Do you always hold your life so lightly as to start an air machine -without previous inspection?” - -“That machine, sir, was as right as could be when we left it last -night. Indeed, sir, it was in elegant shape.” - -“No question but what some devil in human form planned your death, and -if I get the dastard it will be a yardarm in the harbor for him, and no -waste of time and lead.” - -The lieutenant was aroused, and when a calm like his was rudely broken -it meant woe for the object of his wrath. - -Told of the manner in which Billy had been saved, the anger of the -officer relaxed its force for the moment, when he solemnly said: - -“Of the like I have never known; it is beyond me.” - -Investigation, vigorously pushed, soon developed a significant -fact--the youth to whom kit 9 was charged failed to respond at roll -call. Max was missing. - -Jacob then blurted out the whole story of the fight, and all that had -preceded and followed it. - -“I want to say right here and now,” was the stern declaration of the -lieutenant, “that the next offender in this camp will get his billet to -Cologne, where they play checkers with their noses on iron bars. As for -Max, if he is captured, you will see an example made that will not rub -out of your memories for many a day.” - -With that the speaker’s jaws set like a clamp. - -When Billy petitioned for the job of making another monoplane test the -very next day, the lieutenant was astonished. - -“You certainly ought to take something for that nerve of yours, boy.” - -“But, sir, it’s all in the game,” argued Billy; “it’s our business, and -we can’t quit for every close call.” - -“See me to-morrow; besides, Herr Roque wants to have a talk with you. -Here he is now.” - -The lieutenant presented Billy to a mild-looking man in citizen’s -attire, and who peered at the boy through horn-bound spectacles. This -noted secret agent was the picture to-day of a well-to-do merchant in -the lesser lines of trade. What his appearance would indicate to-morrow -is another thing. He was a lightning change artist, according to repute. - -“Glad to meet you, young sir,” was his bland address, in perfect -English. - -“Same to you, sir,” Billy politely replied, all the time wondering what -was coming. - -“I just came over from the city to take up a little supply contract -with the officers here, and I learned of your narrow escape from death. -It was wonderful, miraculous. I congratulate you.” - -“Thank you kindly, sir.” - -“Ah, no need of thanks, young sir. I highly appreciate the favor of -meeting you. - -“Let us be seated, if you please. I am not so young as I used to be. -Good. Now we can chat in comfort. I am very fond of the air sport, I -assure you. Isn’t it queer that often what we admire the most we know -the least about? Art, for instance--and flying, too, on little boards, -without the lifting power of gas. Wonderful!” - -“What’s he driving at?” thought Billy. Then aloud: “I expect I had -better not take up any more of your time, sir, as you are here on -business.” - -“I wish you knew just how dull it was in Hamburg now. Business is, oh, -so quiet. And I so like to talk to bright young men. It just occurred -to me that you and your young friend would like to take a little voyage -with me, in a trading vessel that I own. Of course, in these sad times -of war a sea voyage is not the popular choice for recreation, but just -a brief cruise in known waters isn’t at all bad for the nerves. The -regularly enlisted young men, it seems, cannot be spared, and I have -spoken to the lieutenant about borrowing his young visitors for a -week or two, promising them both a good time, and just that spice of -adventure which lads of your caliber seem to require.” - -“It just occurred” also to Billy that it was more than passing strange, -in the first place, that there should be so much personal interest -manifested in the affairs of Henri and himself, and, secondly, how it -was that an ordinary tradesman could have such a “pull” with military -authority. The civilian here, as a rule, did not count in high figures -alongside of a uniform. - -This was evidently an exceptional case, for not only did the lieutenant -approve of Herr Roque’s proposition and invitation, but that officer -had unbent to the extent of entertaining Henri, on the side, and -telling him that Billy and himself were lucky in attracting the -interest of this kindly merchant. - -So it proved no longer a matter of open consent on the part of the -boys; it was simply a go, when the lieutenant commanded. - -“I don’t know why I was selected as the dummy for all that beating -around the bush,” observed Billy, when the boys tumbled into their -bunks that night. - -“You oughtn’t to kick because you are the prominent member of the -firm,” teased Henri. - -“Well, we won’t know what it is until we get to it, that’s one thing -sure,” yawned Billy. - -They were booked, if they only knew it, to discover that “Herr Roque” -was a man of many moods, as well as make-ups. - - - - -CHAPTER XLV. THE WAYS OF THE SECRET SERVICE. - - -“That doesn’t look like a pirate craft, anyhow.” - -The boys were on the docks bright and early the next morning, and were -looking at the vessel in which they were expected to embark within the -next hour for the trip down the Elbe to the sea. - -As Billy had put it, the ship they were viewing was neither “low, -long, nor rakish.” Herr Roque had not deceived them on that point, at -least. It was a “trading vessel.” All of the crew in sight were of the -roustabout class, except the captain, who was somewhat of a dandy, with -a glazed cap, high collar, military blouse, and corduroy trousers. - -“Hi, there!” he called to the boys in high-pitched German, “are you -from Herr Roque?” - -Henri advised in loud tone that such was the fact. - -“Come aboard, then,” invited the boss of the deck. - -The boys made short work of the rickety gangboard, and, aboard, cast an -eye about for their host. - -The captain said something in his way of speaking that meant “you’ll -see him later.” - -It was some time later--at the mouth of the Elbe, and late at night. - -Before this happened, the boys, not experienced as seamen, were -surprised to the limit at the ready transformation of that “trade -vessel.” Tarpaulin coverings removed, like magic unfolding, revealed a -funnel, gunbeds, and guns in them, of the kind to raise the mischief -with a hull at short range; spars were stripped of clumsy sails, and -the craft generally departed from the peaceful classification in which -it cleared from Hamburg. - -“Oh, you pleasure trip!” Billy merrily commented. - -“You surely didn’t swallow that story?” - -“You know I didn’t, Henri,” returned Billy. “When is a dummy not a -dummy? Answer: When someone thinks he is what he isn’t. How’s that, -Henri?” - -“As good grammar as could be expected on a trick ship,” acknowledged -Henri. - -The sailors even changed their faces with their clothes, their jaws -fitting as tightly as their sea-going outfits, and, as far as the -captain himself, he was no longer set up in landscape style. Straight -as a poker he stood on the newly discovered bridge like an image of -lead. - -“Wouldn’t jar me if Herr Roque showed up with horns on his forehead -instead of in spectacle trimming.” - -Billy was preparing for the next fall of the wand. - -While the boys were watching the hoist of the anchor, following a -curt command from the officer on the bridge, and a distant chime was -proclaiming the midnight hour, Billy was made aware that someone, not -of the regular crew, was standing at his elbow. - -The voice was that of Herr Roque, but the speaker could never for a -single moment be materially taken for the late elderly spectacled -merchant. - -“How now, young sirs; is it well with you?” - -Billy and Henri stared at the face showing in the pale gleam of a -spar light. Clean-shaven, thin-lipped, hard-eyed, not a trace of the -benevolent cast of countenance worn by the bland tradesman. - -The line of talk was there, but not another line of the other assumed -character. - -“Is--it--really--Herr Roque?” stammered Billy. - -“At your service, young sirs.” - -“It all works like a play,” put in Henri. - -“I hope not a tragedy, young sirs.” - -“Would you mind cutting out the ‘young sirs’?” - -Billy was getting nettled at this mockery. - -“No offense intended, I assure you.” - -For reasons of his own, the secret agent had no desire to blunt the -edge of his selected tools in useless manner. - -Indeed, he kept the boys on velvet, so to speak, for the first two days -at sea. - -Then his mood changed with lack of leisure moments. He was constantly -on the alert and abrupt in word and action. - -There was a sailor constantly in the crosstrees, sweeping the watery -expanse with powerful glasses. The gunners were standing, watch about, -in readiness for any emergency. - -As a completing touch to this deck setting a runway had been rigged and -the boys for the first time realized the part they were expected to -play. There was a pair of monoplanes under cover, a waspish pair, of -exquisite make and finish. - -“Get to them and get them in shape,” sternly ordered Roque, “as if your -lives depended on it--and” (grimly) “I guess they do.” - -In this assignment Billy and Henri took the star rôles. - -“Smoke ahead,” sang out the man up the mast. - -“Whereaway?” demanded the captain. - -“South by southeast,” floated back from the masthead. - -“Get that?” The captain to the wheelman. - -“Ay, ay, sir.” - -“Hold her hard, then.” - -Signal to the engine room: “Slow speed.” - -Roque summoned the boys with imperious motion. - -“Take the air; bring signal red, if English warship; signal white, if -French cruiser; and signal black, if channel steamer. Get away!” - -Four sailors manned the runway--first Billy shot the chute; then Henri, -a moment later. A clean leap, and off they went. - -The steamer they left logged lazily, drifting, waiting. - -The aviators guided the flight toward the thin spiral of smoke -penciling a point on the horizon. The air was as clear as a bell. - -With no fixed notion of what purpose they were serving, the aviators -exulted only in the joy of air conquest. The machines were keyed up -like a watch--that is, perfection--and could be directed to a hairline. - -The smoke spiral was rope-sized, then body-round, then a column. - -The aviators looked down for a fleeting moment on one of the large -channel steamers, somewhat out of its course, and instantly whirled -about, flying like the homing pigeon, and exactly as the compass set -the lines. - -Each monoplane trailed a black streamer. - -The sailor at the masthead caught the color in his glasses. - -And drawing nearer the aviators, caught their signal to descend. - -It is a nice piece of work to drop an aëroplane upon the deck of a -wave-rocked ship, and in this instance it was a nice piece of work -nicely done. - -There was a gleam of approbation in the cold gray eyes of Roque, when -the machines floated in and nested without strain or creak upon the -foredeck. - -“I see that I sized you about right,” he said, and it could be plainly -inferred that he accepted the exhibit largely as a vindication of his -own judgment. - -True for Roque, for it had been said that he seldom erred in matters of -this kind. - -It was also evident that the color of the signal streamer was the one -to his liking, for, with a great flurry of orders, the vessel, under -full head of steam, hastened its hunt for the big channel boat, as -located by the aviators. - -As they ran in course, the channel steamer was crossing the line -followed by the fast-approaching German vessel. The latter, moving -free, could easily overhaul the cargo-laden ship, straightway, and more -surely in crossway. - -The overhauling was soon accomplished, and the unarmed channel boat -hove to, to the tune of a round shot across her bow. - -Billy and Henri were not included in the boarding party. They had -served their turn, and beyond that were not expected to serve. - -They could not imagine what Roque had in mind when all hands were -hustling in the transfer of numerous canvas rolls to the German deck, -all labeled “music machines.” They well knew of the Teuton fondness -for music, but here was a whole lot of trouble and expense to get what -might have been easily and cheaply purchased in Hamburg. - -Roque made no attempt to take prisoners or other plunder from the -nonresisting commercial carrier. - -The “music machines” were all he wanted, and, with a deck full of them, -the German vessel broke its grapples and steamed away. - -It never dawned upon the boys that the labels were not the true index -of contents, until one of the parcels was broken open for inspection. - -The wrappings enclosed rifles--hundreds of them. - - - - -CHAPTER XLVI. THE FACE IN THE MIRROR. - - -“This man Roque must have a long reach to have known about that -consignment of guns, how and when they were to be shipped, and make the -strike he did within three days.” - -Billy was discussing with Henri some of the remarkable features of the -recent voyage, as the steamer came in sight of Helgoland Bay, on the -return trip. - -“He’s a magician, that’s what he is,” maintained Billy. “Did you ever -see the beat of the way he unmasked this ship?” - -“And himself,” added Henri. - -At the mouth of the Elbe, the tarpaulins again shrouded the warlike -fixings that had been revealed by their removal, and it was the -familiar “trading vessel,” dandy captain, roustabouts, and all, that -went in with the tide. - -“Home again, young sirs.” - -The oily tradesman once more, horn spectacles, bland address, and -benevolent smile--Herr Roque, the peaceful merchant with a liking for -bright young men and pleasure trips when business was dull. - -“We’ll have a little run up to Kiel by the way of the great canal, a -nice jaunt to complete our vacation, young sirs.” - -Herr Roque was the picture of innocence, as he genially waved his hand -to a party of harbor officials, passing near in a launch. He took snuff -from a silver box and extended the compliment of giving the captain a -chance to take a pinch. - -It was noticeable, however, that the slightest word from the kind -“merchant” commanded the instant respect and attention of those about -him. - -“It would make us all very happy, my dear captain, if you could spare -the time to arrange our ship to Kiel. Herr Raum is very anxious to get -the goods. He has orders from Berlin to fill.” - -This comedy was for the sole benefit of the assemblage on the docks. - -The canvas rolls with the rifles inside were already on the way to -Kiel, and the boxes to which Roque was pointing were simply ship -supplies. - -Billy and Henri were not aware that they had been accorded an unusual -privilege when they looked upon the real Roque during the hunt for the -channel steamer. - -Kiel, in contrast to Hamburg, seethed with activity, the streets -swarming with sailors and marines, while in the harbor dispatch boats -dashed hither and thither. - -Herr Roque kept Billy and Henri close to his elbow, and forbade their -engaging in conversation with any stranger, unless duly presented by -him. The English tongue was not at all popular in Kiel at this time. -Henri, to be sure, could rattle off German like a native, but it was -deemed best that he also become a mute like his companion. - -Notwithstanding all this precaution, the boys were fated to have their -usual adventure before quitting this lively town. They never would -stand hitched! Herr Roque had some special business in the town, no -doubt concerning the “music boxes,” and he “planted” his young charges -in a hotel near the docks, with a word to the landlord to give them a -look over now and then. - -“I don’t propose to stick around this coffee house all day,” rebelled -Billy, “when there is so much going on outside. Let’s join that crowd -piking at the harbor. Something’s doing there.” - -Henri was in the same humor, and the pair mixed with the mentioned -curious crowd. - -The attraction was three huge liners transformed by a coat of gray -paint and yellow funnels. - -The boys pushed their way to the front rank of the viewers, and then a -little ahead of what appeared to be the limit of approach. - -There was a murmur from the crowd. It was known that soldiers aboard -were not allowed to leave these particular ships, popularly believed -to be transports destined for the invasion of England, and an equally -stern rule that nobody was allowed to come near them. - -Of course, Billy and Henri had no knowledge of the rule, and they -crossed the deadline as care-free as clams. - -Then something dropped. It was a heavy hand on the shoulder of Henri, -a few feet in advance of his chum. Somebody set a vise-like grip on -Billy’s wrist. A bevy of graybacks fluttered around them. They had -committed the unpardonable sin of ignoring a military order, and also -they were unpardonably foreign to the soil. They were English, until -they proved themselves something else. - -A lane opened in the muttering crowd, and through it marched the file -of soldiers, with the suspects sandwiched between the leader and the -next in line. - -At the city hall the soldiers and the suspects abruptly deserted the -lengthy street procession behind them, and the prisoners were presented -without further ceremony to the bulky occupant of a revolving chair -within a railed enclosure. - -“What have we here?” sharply questioned the man behind the railing. - -The soldier spokesman briefly related the cause of the arrest. - -“Lock them up.” This order completed the first hearing. - -Billy and Henri a few minutes later perched themselves on a sack -mattress filled with straw, in a prison cell. - -“‘In the prison cell I sit,’” chanted Billy. - -“Don’t be a chump,” complained Henri. “This is a serious matter, I tell -you.” - -“What’s the use of crying, old top, when you can sing?” - -Billy was prescribing a tonic for his partner. - -“There is just one man who can get us out of this scrape,” stated -Henri, “and he wears horn spectacles.” - -“It won’t take that man long to find us; he’s a smooth one.” - -Billy had the utmost confidence in Herr Roque’s ability as a sleuth -since the affair of the “music boxes.” - -Footfalls sounded in the long corridor outside. - -“Maybe that’s him now,” was Henri’s eager expression, as he hastened to -the grated door of the cell. - -But the footfalls did not belong to Roque. The man at the door was only -a burly guard who handed in two tins of hot coffee and a dangling roll -of raw sausages. - -“Say, major,” pleaded Henri in German, “we’ve got a good friend uptown -that knows all about us--can’t we get word to him?” - -Even the rank of “major” did not appeal to the jailer, for he only -grunted, and turned on his heel. - -“Looks like a night of it, Henri.” - -“And there will be a morning of it, too,” predicted Henri. - -“‘We won’t go home until morning,’” warbled Billy. - -“Oh, what’s the use? You have quit being human.” - -Failing to turn his friend from his waggish way, Henri rolled over on -the straw mattress and went to sleep. Billy followed suit. - -They were awakened by the clang of a bolt, and sprang to sitting -position, rubbing their eyes. - -The jailer, with a lantern swung to his arm like a railway conductor, -was framed in the cell door. A pair of horn spectacles glistened over -his shoulder. - -“Glory be! It’s Herr Roque!” - -Billy was not bluffing now. He was glad enough to see this able -protector. - -Herr Roque did not appear to be very amiable. He was not accustomed -to have his arrangements disturbed by a pair of flyaways like these. -But he was still the finished actor, for the guard’s benefit, and -pretended, in words, to be overwhelmed with anxiety: - -“How glad I am to see you, my young friends. I could not imagine what -had become of you, and I had been seeking you high and low when I met -the Burgomaster Haupt coming from his club, and he told me about the -trouble at the docks. I was shocked, indeed, and it has been proved all -a mistake.” - -When he got the boys outside, though, he concluded a different line of -talk with: - -“I’ll have to tie bells around your necks when next you wander in -strange pastures. You are likely to get into a neck-twisting fix with -such pranks as these.” - -Neither Billy nor Henri made speeches for the defense. They meekly -accepted this chiding, all the time rejoicing that they were again -breathing free air. It was a mile ahead of six-by-eight stone walls. - -“I’m through here,” briefly announced Herr Roque at breakfast, “and -after a call at Bremen I am going to restore this pair of lambs to the -aviation lieutenant at Hamburg. There you can always be found when I -want you.” - -“That means, Herr Roque, I suppose, that we will get cards for some -more vacation trips?” - -“It means, young man, that if you ask no questions you will receive no -false information.” - -Billy was subdued for once. - -At Bremen they found the hotels deserted, but the theaters and cafés -full. - -It was among these cafés that the boys sharpened their wits by close -observation of Herr Roque, who was always looking for something when he -appeared to be looking for nothing but an easy way of life. - -They found occasion to use keen wit before that first evening in Bremen -was over. It was a startling test. - -As they basked in the benevolence of Herr Roque, facing him at a -well-spread table in one of the brilliantly lighted cafés, Billy saw -a familiar face reflected in a mirror hanging on the wall back of the -chair occupied by their host--the smiling face of the secretary the -boys had met in the office of the great man in Calais, who speeded them -on their way to Paris. - -The mirror also reflected the garb of a sailor, merchant marine, and -the man was at a table directly back of where the aviators were seated. - -Billy felt in a flash that it would be like signing a friend’s death -warrant to make the least show of recognition. - -Fearful that Henri might forget himself and draw the attention of Herr -Roque, if suddenly confronted with the mirrored face, Billy used a -knowledge of telegraphy, in which his companion was expert, by softly -finger-tapping on the polished table surface between them the word -“caution.” - -Henri was puzzled at the operation, but with the warning gave no sign -by change of expression. - -Herr Roque was toying with a fork, and seemed to be thinking at a -distance. The boys, for the time being, were forgotten pawns. - -Billy tapped “mirror.” - -Henri fixed a glance there. - -Three pairs of eyes met in the shining glass. - -The smile left the face reflected from behind. - -The “sailor” knew and was known. His right hand was lifted carelessly -to his lips, and a finger lingered there for a scant second. - -The understanding was complete. - - - - -CHAPTER XLVII. THE MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE. - - -The boys were just aching in spirit for even a word with the supposed -sailor, safely out of range of the lynx-eyed Roque, but the latter, -after the experience in Kiel, stuck closer than a burr to his charges. - -The face had passed from the mirror, and the owner of the smiling -countenance sauntered through the street door of the café, mingling -with many of his kind, smoking and chatting on the sidewalk. - -“How will we make it?” tapped Billy on the table. - -“Do not know,” was Henri’s answering tap. - -Roque had paid the waiter for the dinner service, and was placidly -puffing a long, black cigar. - -“We might take a stroll,” suggested Billy. - -“Something like you did at Kiel?” - -The secret agent seemed to have amused himself with this sly dig, but -it was lost upon his young companions, who were working their wits to -invent a getaway. - -“How would you like to go to the theater?” - -“Bully idea!” This was Billy’s vote. - -“Fine!” echoed Henri. - -As the three passed out of the café, the boys brushed against the very -man with whom they were eager to speak. - -Billy was inspired at the moment to distinctly address Herr Roque -regarding their return journey to the air camp: - -“What time to-morrow do we leave for Hamburg, sir?” - -Roque gave Billy a look of stern rebuke. - -Billy was not worried about the answer he did not get in words. He saw -a certain bystander uncover a fine set of teeth, and that was enough. - -The play at the theater was a war drama, which was not at all like -the real thing, but Billy was so delighted with the success of his -stratagem at the café door that he was inclined to applaud at both the -right and the wrong time. - -Henri held his praise for his chum, when the two retired for the night. - -“It looks like a case of ‘diamond cut diamond’ to me,” he observed, -“for you can wager that they would never send a fool over here to buck -against the like of Roque.” - -“I bet they wouldn’t,” was Billy’s sleepy opinion. - -The next evening the boys were back in the air camp at Hamburg. - -“You have your hands full, lieutenant,” remarked Roque, with a wink and -a nod at our Aviator Boys. - -There is no telling what he might have said had he known what Billy had -put over on him the night before. - -“Well,” said the lieutenant, “though it appears that Roque has the -first call on you, I’m going to keep you busy between times, and as -there is nobody around now to scuttle your air mounts you can fly to -your hearts’ content.” - -They flew the air as they willed, in monoplanes and biplanes, singly -or doubly, and, as usual, at the same time these boys managed to fly -together into some of the ticklish affairs of earth. - -It was on a Sunday morning that a jolly party of sailors came over from -the harbor to the air camp, and, as they were all supposed to be “true -blue,” or, rather, “true gray,” they were permitted to poke their noses -into the hangars without restraint. - -Billy and Henri, as the chief aviators present, were counted in as part -of the exhibit, and delegated to represent the lieutenant, who claimed -this one day for late slumber. - -One of the sailors, while he and his comrades were watching the aërial -maneuvers of a Zeppelin, had picked standing room as near to our -Aviator Boys as he could conveniently get. So enthusiastic was this man -over the majestic flight of the big airship that he grasped the hand of -the nearest member of the flying profession, which proved to be Henri. - -There was something more than the mere pressure of the shake, however, -for Henri’s fingers closed over a wad of paper. - -The sailor kept on cheering, but he did not keep on standing in the -same spot. - -The paper wad lay in an itching palm, for the holder was itching to -open it. - -He knew the man who had “delivered the mail!” - -Billy also had something of an acquaintance with the bubbling sailor. - -When the boys jointly read the faint tracing of the tissue message -they could not comprehend all that it was intended to convey. That -understanding was to come later. - -Then, too, Roque must be in the reckoning. - -Here we shall have to leave them, flying toward Kiel harbor, but their -further adventures in their chosen profession will be found in the -second book of this series under the title of “OUR YOUNG AËROPLANE -SCOUTS IN GERMANY; or, Winning the Iron Cross.” - - * * * * * - -The Navy Boys Series - -[Illustration] - -A series of excellent stories of adventure on sea and land, selected -from the works of popular writers; each volume designed for boys’ -reading. - -HANDSOME CLOTH BINDINGS - -PRICE, 60 CENTS PER VOLUME - -THE NAVY BOYS IN DEFENCE OF LIBERTY. - -A story of the burning of the British schooner Gaspee in 1772. By -William P. Chipman. - -THE NAVY BOYS ON LONG ISLAND SOUND. - -A story of the Whale Boat Navy of 1776. By James Otis. - -THE NAVY BOYS AT THE SIEGE OF HAVANA. - -Being the experience of three boys serving under Israel Putnam in 1772. -By James Otis. - -THE NAVY BOYS WITH GRANT AT VICKSBURG. - -A boy’s story of the siege of Vicksburg. By James Otis. - -THE NAVY BOYS’ CRUISE WITH PAUL JONES. - -A boy’s story of a cruise with the Great Commodore in 1776. By James -Otis. - -THE NAVY BOYS ON LAKE ONTARIO. - -The story of two boys and their adventures in the War of 1812. By James -Otis. - -THE NAVY BOYS’ CRUISE ON THE PICKERING. - -A boy’s story of privateering in 1780. By James Otis. - -THE NAVY BOYS IN NEW YORK BAY. - -A story of three boys who took command of the schooner “The Laughing -Mary,” the first vessel of the American Navy. By James Otis. - -THE NAVY BOYS IN THE TRACK OF THE ENEMY. - -The story of a remarkable cruise with the Sloop of War “Providence” and -the frigate “Alfred.” By William P. Chipman. - -THE NAVY BOYS’ DARING CAPTURE. - -The story of how the navy boys helped to capture the British Cutter -“Margaretta,” in 1775. By William P. Chipman. - -THE NAVY BOYS’ CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS. - -The adventures of two Yankee Middies with the first cruise of an -American Squadron in 1775. By William P. Chipman. - -THE NAVY BOYS’ CRUISE WITH COLUMBUS. - -The adventures of two boys who sailed with the great Admiral in his -discovery of America. By Frederick A. Ober. - -For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by -the publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York - - * * * * * - -The Boy Spies Series - -[Illustration] - -These stories are based on important historical events, scenes wherein -boys are prominent characters being selected. They are the romance of -history, vigorously told, with careful fidelity to picturing the home -life, and accurate in every particular. - -HANDSOME CLOTH BINDINGS - -PRICE, 60 CENTS PER VOLUME - -THE BOY SPIES AT THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. - -A story of the part they took in its defence. By William P. Chipman. - -THE BOY SPIES AT THE DEFENCE OF FORT HENRY. - -A boy’s story of Wheeling Creek in 1777. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES AT THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. - -A story of two boys at the siege of Boston. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES AT THE SIEGE OF DETROIT. - -A story of two Ohio boys in the War of 1812. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES WITH LAFAYETTE. - -The story of how two boys joined the Continental Army. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES ON CHESAPEAKE BAY. - -The story of two young spies under Commodore Barney. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES WITH THE REGULATORS. - -The story of how the boys assisted the Carolina Patriots to drive the -British from that State. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES WITH THE SWAMP FOX. - -The story of General Marion and his young spies. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES AT YORKTOWN. - -The story of how the spies helped General Lafayette in the Siege of -Yorktown. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES OF PHILADELPHIA. - -The story of how the young spies helped the Continental Army at Valley -Forge. By James Otis. - -THE BOY SPIES OF FORT GRISWOLD. - -The story of the part they took in its brave defence. By William P. -Chipman. - -THE BOY SPIES OF OLD NEW YORK. - -The story of how the young spies prevented the capture of General -Washington. By James Otis. - -For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by -the publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York - - * * * * * - -THE JACK LORIMER SERIES - -5 Volumes By WINN STANDISH - -Handsomely Bound in Cloth Full Library Size--Price 40 cents per Volume, -postpaid - -CAPTAIN JACK LORIMER; or, The Young Athlete of Millvale High. - -Jack Lorimer is a fine example of the all-around American high-school -boy. His fondness for clean, honest sport of all kinds will strike a -chord of sympathy among athletic youths. - -JACK LORIMER’S CHAMPIONS; or, Sports on Land and Lake. - -There is a lively story woven in with the athletic achievements, which -are all right, since the book has been O.K’d by Chadwick, the Nestor of -American sporting journalism. - -JACK LORIMER’S HOLIDAYS; or, Millvale High in Camp. - -It would be well not to put this book into a boy’s hands until the -chores are finished, otherwise they might be neglected. - -JACK LORIMER’S SUBSTITUTE; or, The Acting Captain of the Team. - -On the sporting side, the book takes up football, wrestling, -tobogganing. There is a good deal of fun in this book and plenty of -action. - -JACK LORIMER, FRESHMAN; or, From Millvale High to Exmouth. - -Jack and some friends he makes crowd innumerable happenings into an -exciting freshman year at one of the leading Eastern colleges. The book -is typical of the American college boy’s life, and there is a lively -story, interwoven with feats on the gridiron, hockey, basketball and -other clean, honest sports for which Jack Lorimer stands. - -For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by -the publishers A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York. - - * * * * * - -The Boy Allies With the Battleships - -(Registered in the United States Patent Office) - -By ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE - -Price, 40 Cents per Volume, Postpaid - -Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other -in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances -place them on board the British cruiser “The Sylph” and from there on, -they share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. -Drake, the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes -admirably the many exciting adventures of the two boys. - -THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine. - -THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the Czar. - -THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow at -the German Fleet. - -THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the Seas. - -THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the -Great War. - -THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEAS; or, The Last Shot of -Submarine D-16. - - * * * * * - -The Boy Allies With the Army - -(Registered in the United States Patent Office) - -By CLAIR W. HAYES - -Price, 40 Cents per Volume, Postpaid - -In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to -leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the -Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and -escapes are many, and furnish plenty of the good, healthy action that -every boy loves. - -THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the Alps. - -THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a -Nation. - -THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel. - -THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the -Marne. - -THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash over the Carpathians. - -THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the -Aisne. - - * * * * * - -The Big Five Motorcycle Boys Series - -By RALPH MARLOW - -Price, 40 Cents per Volume, Postpaid - -It is doubtful whether a more entertaining lot of boys ever before -appeared in a story than the “Big Five,” who figure in the pages of -these volumes. From cover to cover the reader will be thrilled and -delighted with the accounts of their many adventures. - -THE BIG FIVE MOTORCYCLE BOYS ON THE BATTLE LINE; or, With the Allies in -France. - -THE BIG FIVE MOTORCYCLE BOYS AT THE FRONT; or, Carrying Dispatches -Through Belgium. - -THE BIG FIVE MOTORCYCLE BOYS UNDER FIRE; or, With the Allies in the War -Zone. - -THE BIG FIVE MOTORCYCLE BOYS’ SWIFT ROAD CHASE; or, Surprising the Bank -Robbers. - -THE BIG FIVE MOTORCYCLE BOYS ON FLORIDA TRAILS; or, Adventures Among -the Saw Palmetto Crackers. - -THE BIG FIVE MOTORCYCLE BOYS IN TENNESSEE WILDS; or, The Secret of -Walnut Ridge. - -THE BIG FIVE MOTORCYCLE BOYS THROUGH BY WIRELESS; or, A Strange Message -from the Air. - - * * * * * - -The Boy Chums Series - -By WILMER M. ELY - -Price, 40 Cents per Volume, Postpaid - -In this series of remarkable stories are described the adventures of -two boys in the great swamps of interior Florida, among the cays off -the Florida coast, and through the Bahama Islands. These are real, live -boys, and their experiences are worth following. - -THE BOY CHUMS IN MYSTERY LAND; or, Charlie West and Walter Hazard among -the Mexicans. - -THE BOY CHUMS ON INDIAN RIVER; or, The Boy Partners of the Schooner -“Orphan.” - -THE BOY CHUMS ON HAUNTED ISLAND; or, Hunting for Pearls In the Bahama -Islands. - -THE BOY CHUMS IN THE FOREST; or, Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida -Everglades. - -THE BOY CHUMS’ PERILOUS CRUISE; or, Searching for Wreckage on the -Florida Coast. - -THE BOY CHUMS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO; or, A Dangerous Cruise with the -Greek Spongers. - -THE BOY CHUMS CRUISING IN FLORIDA WATERS; or, The Perils and Dangers of -the Fishing Fleet. - -THE BOY CHUMS IN THE FLORIDA JUNGLE; or, Charlie West and Walter Hazard -with the Seminole Indians. - - * * * * * - -The Broncho Rider Boys Series - -By FRANK FOWLER - -Price, 40 Cents per Volume, Postpaid - -A series of stirring stories for boys, breathing the adventurous spirit -that lives in the wide plains and lofty mountain ranges of the great -West. These tales will delight every lad who loves to read of pleasing -adventure in the open; yet at the same time the most careful parent -need not hesitate to place them in the hands of the boy. - -THE BRONCHO RIDER BOYS WITH FUNSTON AT VERA CRUZ; or, Upholding the -Honor of the Stars and Stripes. - -When trouble breaks out between this country and Mexico, the boys -are eager to join the American troops under General Funston. Their -attempts to reach Vera Cruz are fraught with danger, but after many -difficulties, they manage to reach the trouble zone, where their real -adventures begin. - -THE BRONCHO RIDER BOYS AT KEYSTONE RANCH; or, Three Chums of the Saddle -and Lariat. - -In this story the reader makes the acquaintance of three devoted chums. -The book begins in rapid action, and there is “something doing” up to -the very time you lay it down. - -THE BRONCHO RIDER BOYS DOWN IN ARIZONA; or, A Struggle for the Great -Copper Lode. - -The Broncho Rider Boys find themselves impelled to make a brave fight -against heavy odds, in order to retain possession of a valuable mine -that is claimed by some of their relatives. They meet with numerous -strange and thrilling perils and every wideawake boy will be pleased to -learn how the boys finally managed to outwit their enemies. - -THE BRONCHO RIDER BOYS ALONG THE BORDER; or, The Hidden Treasure of the -Zuni Medicine Man. - -Once more the tried and true comrades of camp and trail are in the -saddle. In the strangest possible way they are drawn into a series of -exciting happenings among the Zuni Indians. Certainly no lad will lay -this book down, save with regret. - -THE BRONCHO RIDER BOYS ON THE WYOMING TRAIL; or, A Mystery of the -Prairie Stampede. - -The three prairie pards finally find a chance to visit the Wyoming -ranch belonging to Adrian, but managed for him by an unscrupulous -relative. Of course, they become entangled in a maze of adventurous -doings while in the Northern cattle country. How the Broncho Rider Boys -carried themselves through this nerve-testing period makes intensely -interesting reading. - -THE BRONCHO RIDER BOYS WITH THE TEXAS RANGERS; or, The Smugglers of the -Rio Grande. - -In this volume, the Broncho Rider Boys get mixed up in the Mexican -troubles, and become acquainted with General Villa. In their efforts to -prevent smuggling across the border, they naturally make many enemies, -but finally succeed in their mission. - - * * * * * - -Our Young Aeroplane Scouts Series - -(Registered in the United States Patent Office) - -By HORACE PORTER - -Price, 50 Cents per Volume, Postpaid - -A series of stories of two American boy aviators in the great European -war zone. The fascinating life in midair is thrillingly described. -The boys have many exciting adventures, and the narratives of their -numerous escapes make up a series of wonderfully interesting stories. - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ENGLAND; or, Twin Stars in the London Sky -Patrol. - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN ITALY; or, Flying with the War Eagles of -the Alps. - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM; or, Saving the -Fortunes of the Trouvilles. - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN GERMANY; or, Winning the Iron Cross. - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN RUSSIA; or, Lost on the Frozen Steppes. - -OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS IN TURKEY; or, Bringing the Light to Yusef. - -For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by -the publishers - -A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 E 23d St., New York - - * * * * * - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Punctuation has been made consistent. - -Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in -the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have -been corrected. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Young Aeroplane Scouts In France -and Belgium, by Horace Porter - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR YOUNG AEROPLANE SCOUTS *** - -***** This file should be named 60813-0.txt or 60813-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/8/1/60813/ - -Produced by Demian Katz, Craig Kirkwood, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Images -courtesy of the Digital Library@Villanova University -(http://digital.library.villanova.edu/)) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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