CHAPTER VI
LOOKING BACKWARD
"Just see the fiendish cleverness of the fellow who filed that stay!"Tom cried, as they all stared. "He filled the indentation his sharp filemade with a bit of wax or chewing-gum of the same general color. Why, noone would ever have noticed the least thing wrong when making theordinary examination."
"Then how did you manage to find it, Tom?" asked Jack, breathing hard,as he pictured to himself the narrow escape he had had.
"I suspected something of the kind might be done; so I ran my thumb-naildown each wire stay," came the answer. "And it turned out just as Ithought."
"There may be still more places filed in the same way," suggested theother pilot, looking as black as a thunder-cloud; because such an actwas in his mind the rankest sort of treachery, worthy of only the mostdegraded man.
"We will find them if there are," replied Tom, resolutely. "And whenthis thing is known I imagine there'll be a general overhauling of allthe machines on the aviation field. One thing is certain, Jack. You wereplaying in great luck when you suggested that we ask for a day off andthen picked out this particular one."
Jack shrugged his shoulders as he replied:
"That's right, Tom."
Nothing could be done just then, with night coming on. Tom talked withseveral of the attendants at the hangars, and left it to them to go towork with the coming of morning. He even showed them how cunningly thework had been carried out; so they might be on their guard against sucha trick from that time forward.
Then the three returned to the villa. Others of the members of theescadrille were in the car with the trio, so the talk was general,experiences of the day's happenings being narrated, all told in acareless fashion, as if those young aviators considered all such risksas part of the ordinary routine of business.
Later on the news concerning Jack's singular warning, and what came ofit went the rounds. He was asked to show the brief note many times; butin answer to the questions that came pouring in upon him, Jack could notsay more than he had already said with regard to his suspicionsconcerning the probable writer of the message.
That night Tom and Jack preferred the quiet of their own apartment tothe general sitting-room, where the tired pilots gathered to smoke,talk, play games, sing, and give their opinions on every topicimaginable, including scraps of news received in late letters from hometowns across the sea.
"Do you know, Tom," Jack said unexpectedly; "I'd give something to knowwhere Bessie Gleason is just at this time. It's strange how often Ithink about that young girl. It's just as if something that people callintuition told me she might be in serious trouble through thathard-looking guardian of hers, Carl Potzfeldt."
Tom smiled.
Bessie Gleason was a very pretty and winsome girl of about twelve yearsof age, with whom Jack in particular had been quite "chummy" on thevoyage across the Atlantic, and through the submarine zone, as relatedin "Air Service Boys Flying for France." The last he had seen of her waswhen she waved her hand to him when leaving the steamer at its Englishport. Her stern guardian had contracted a violent dislike for Jack, sothat the two had latterly been compelled to meet only in secret forlittle confidential chats.
"Oh, you've taken to imagining all sorts of terrible things inconnection with pretty Bessie and her cruel guardian. He claimed to be aSwiss, or a native of Alsace-Lorraine, which was it, Jack?"
"Uh-huh," murmured Jack Parmly, his thoughts just then far away from Tomand his question, though fixed on Carl Potzfeldt and his young ward.
Bessie Gleason was a little American girl, a child of moods, fairylikein appearance and of a maturity of manner that invariably attractedthose with whom she came in contact.
Her mother had been lost at sea, and by Mrs. Gleason's will the girl andher property were left in Potzfeldt's care. Mr. Potzfeldt was taking herto Europe, and on the steamship she and Jack Parmly had been friends,and as Potzfeldt's actions were suspicious and, moreover, the girl didnot seem happy with him Jack had been troubled about her.
"I'm afraid you think too much about Bessie and her troubles, Jack; andget yourself worked up about things that may never happen to her," Tomwent on after a pause.
"I knew you'd say that, Tom," the other told him reproachfully. "But I'mnot blaming you for it. However, there are several things Bessie told methat I haven't mentioned to you before; and they help to make me feelanxious about her happiness. She's a queer girl, you know, and intenselypatriotic."
"Yes I noticed that, even if you did monopolize most of her time,"chuckled Tom.
"How she does hate the Germans, though! And that's what will get herinto trouble I'm afraid, if she and her guardian have managed to getthrough the lines in any way, and back to his home town, wherever thatmay be."
"Why should she feel so bitter toward the Kaiser and his people, Jack?"
"I'll tell you. Her mother was drowned. She was aboard the_Lusitania_, and was never seen after the sinking. Mr. Potzfeldtwas there too, it seems, but couldn't save Mrs. Gleason, he claims,though he tried in every way to do so. She was a distant relative ofhis, you remember."
"Then if Bessie knows about her mother's death," Tom went on to say, "Idon't wonder she feels that way toward everything German. I'd hate theentire race if my mother had been murdered, as those women and childrenwere, when that torpedo was launched against the great passenger steamerwithout any warning."
"She told me she felt heart-broken because she was far too young to doanything to assist in the drive against the central empires. You see,Bessie has great hopes of some day growing tall enough to become a warnurse. She is deeply interested in the Red Cross; and Tom, would youbelieve it, the midget practices regular United States Army standingexercises in the hope of hastening her growth."
"I honor the little girl for her ambition," Tom said. "But I'm inclinedto think this war will be long past before she has grown to a suitablesize to enlist among the nurses of the Paris hospitals. And if that CarlPotzfeldt entertains the sentiments we suspected him of, and is secretlyin sympathy with the Huns, although passing for a neutral, her task willbe rendered doubly hard."
"That's what makes me feel bad every time I get to thinking of Bessie.If only we could chance to run across them again I'd like to engineersome scheme by which she could be taken away from her guardian. Forinstance, if only it could be proved that Potzfeldt was in the pay ofthe German Government, don't you see he could be stood up against awall, and fixed; and then some one would be found able and willing totake care of the girl."
Tom laughed again.
"How nicely you make your arrangements, Jack! Very pleasant outlook forpoor Mr. Potzfeldt, I should say. Why, you hustle him off this earthjust as if he didn't matter thirty cents."
"It isn't because I'm heartless," expostulated the other hurriedly. "ButI'm sure that dark-faced man is a bad egg. We suspected him of beinghand-in-glove with Adolph Tuessig, the man who stole your father'sinvention, and who we knew was a hired German spy over in America. Andfrom little hints Bessie dropped once in a while I am certain he doesn'ttreat her well."
"Still, we can't do the least thing about it, Jack. If fortune shouldever bring us in contact with that pair again, why then we could perhapsthink up some sort of scheme to help Bessie. Now, I've got somethingimportant to tell you."
"Something the captain must have said when he was chatting with you inthe mess-room immediately after supper, I guess. At the time I thoughthe might be asking you about our adventures of to-day, but then Inoticed that he was doing pretty much all the talking. What is on thecarpet for us now?"
"We're going to be given our chance at last, Jack!"
"Do you mean to fly with the fighting escadrille, and meet German pilotsin a life and death battle up among the clouds?" asked Jack, in a voicethat had a tinge of awe about it; for he had often dreamed of suchhonors coming to him; but the realization still seemed afar off.
"That is what we are promised," his chum assured him. "Of course oureducation is not yet compl
ete; but we have shown such progress that, asthere is need of additional pilots able to meet the Fokker planes whilea raid is in progress, we are to be given a showing."
"I'll not sleep much to-night for thinking of it," declared Jack.