CHAPTER XIV
SELECTED FOR SPECIAL DUTY
"REMEMBER," Tom said again very solemnly, "this is a dead secret, Jack."
"Not a whisper will get away from me, I give you my word on that,"hastily replied the other. "And my word is as good as my bond, any day."
"So it is. I only cautioned you as I did because the same secrecy wasimpressed on me at the time I was taken into the matter. That was why Icouldn't give even you a hint. But it's all right now. As to yourquestion, Jack, it might happen that we would get separated from therest of the bunch on the return journey, and, if so, why, you see, wecould take a little spin around the district where that other chateaulies."
"Yes," added Jack thoughtfully, but with a gleam in his eye, "accidentsare apt to happen in even the best regulated families; and it isn't verystrange for aviators to get a little mixed in their bearings."
"Especially," Tom went on to say without the ghost of a smile, "when ona night-bombing expedition; for a thousand things are apt to come up,all calculated to bother the best of pilots, and throw him out of hisreckoning."
"Why, we've been through that mill more than a few times, you remember,Tom. I could mention at least three occasions when we couldn't tellwhere we were and had to go it blind for a time. Fortunately, we gothome all right where some fellows might have been less lucky."
"Well, that's all I'm going to tell you now, for the reason that it'sthe extent of my own information," Tom wound up with. "And since thehour is growing pretty late I reckon two tired fellows I know had betterbe getting over to their bunks."
"One thing more, Tom," urged the other.
"All right, but hurry along, for I saw Bessie looking this way as if shehad something to say; and you interrupted our conversation in a veryinteresting part."
Jack grinned, and said:
"It will stay interrupted, too, for I am going to have the last wordwith Bessie. But I was wondering whether the officers would want us towork to-morrow, and keep up this flying for victory business, as theboys have taken to calling the work we're doing here over the Argonnethese days?"
"Oh! How careless of me to forget to tell you about that! No, all ofthose who have been selected for this enterprise are to get a holidayto-morrow, so they can be fresh for the night work. We're to lie around,take things easy, eat doughnuts as fast as the Salvation Army girls canfry them, and get in trim for strenuous work."
Jack sighed.
"Suits me all right," he admitted. "Haven't had much vacation for threeweeks or so now, and it gets a bit monotonous buzzing over thosetreetops, asking Fritz to pop away at you so as to coax him to betrayhis warm nest down below, and then making signs to our boys so as tolocate it for them."
"All of us who haven't been piloting bombing planes will feel about thesame way, Jack. I know a day off is going to make me feel fresh anddandy.
"Besides," went on Tom, as if incidentally, "there's a fellow over atthe hospital that I'm interested in. His name is Fred Lincoln, and hewas hurt yesterday in one of the skirmishes in the woods. I couldn'tfind out how bad his wounds were, but he was having me take some lettersof his only three days ago, telling me then he had a queer feeling hewas going to get his before long, and asking me to send them home forhim if it happened."
"I remember Fred," said Jack, looking sorry to hear the news. "He's afine boy at that. He was married only a week before the draft took him.Said the war had nothing to do with his getting spliced, as they hadbeen engaged for two years. I hope he comes through. Remember me to him;and also to his nurse--if she happens to be named Nellie."
"Sure. Are you off to bed now?" as the other turned away.
"In five minutes or so, after I've spoken to Bessie," came the answer.
Jack was as good as his word, and the two chums were soon preparing foranother night's sound sleep, hoping they would not be aroused by anydisturbance, such as had occurred on that other night.
In this at least they were lucky. The Germans had evidently suffered soseverely on account of that other raid they did not care to repeat it.
So the night passed altogether in peaceful fashion; that is, for suchtimes of warfare, where hundreds of thousands of fighting men, backed byunlimited batteries and monster guns, were daily grappling in what wasdestined to go down in history as the most extraordinary, as well as themost protracted, engagement of the entire war.
The boys were up early, and Harry Leroy seemed surprised when told thatthe two air service boys did not expect to fly that day.
"Something's up, I warrant," he told them bluntly, "and you're bound tokeep a tight upperlip about it. All right, I wouldn't ask you to whisperjust one word to me; only I feel sore because they have left me out ofthe game. But I never was lucky in drawing prizes. I'll go out and ventmy spleen on some Fritz who happens to get in my way."
When the airmen trailed in toward noon on that October day, first,rumors reached Tom and Jack, and then came the plain story connectedwith Harry's extraordinary conduct on that wonderful morning.
Other pilots said the boy seemed to be possessed of a spirit such asthey had never known him to show before. He hunted out the Bochewherever he could find him, forced him to give battle, and then simplyplayed with him, no matter if he chanced to be one of the best-knownGerman aces.
Two he had sent down in flames, for which he would receive due credit;and there were reports that he had also made as many more drop to theearth in a condition of impotence.
"Why," said a pilot who recounted some of these happenings to the airservice boys, "Harry seemed possessed of a reckless spirit that will bethe death of him yet unless he curbs it. He'll soon have the entireBoche escadrille on his tail, crazy to fetch him down. And if he keepsup this sort of work and lives, he'll soon make our leading ace look tohis laurels."
When Harry came in finally he looked flushed, but triumphant.
"What's all this we hear about your carrying-on this morning?" demandedJack, almost immediately.
"Oh, I just made up my mind that I'd got to have a special day of it,that's all," replied the other carelessly. "They wouldn't let me goalong with you chaps, and I had to do something to let the ugliness getout; so I put it up to Fritz. And, say, I've had a glorious time, too."
He refused pointblank to tell them anything more at the time, so theyhad to pick up all their information through other channels; but then itwas not so hard to do that, since nearly every working aviator had takennote of Harry's remarkable work that morning.
Then came the afternoon.
Both Tom and Jack might have considered that time dragged, only for thefact that they could pass the hours in a pleasant fashion. Tom managedto get over to the field hospital to see his wounded friend, FredLincoln. And, really, he did spend as much as ten minutes trying tocheer that individual up, for Fred had lost an arm, and was feelingblue over his future home-going to his young wife.
As for Jack, he haunted the Y. M. C. A. dugout and wrote letters homeuntil he could not think of another person who would want to beremembered. It was a great day of rest to those hard-working air pilots,though from the look on their faces when they were greeting the incomingaviators one might have thought they rather envied them their latestachievements.
Such is the force of habit.
At last came night, and the two air service boys thrilled with therealization of what great things were apt to come to pass in theirexperience before another dawn brought the grey into the eastern sky.