Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron

by John Henry Goldfrap

  CHAPTER IX

  FRIENDS IN KHAKI

  While they were pushing laboriously onward through the woods,overcoming all manner of obstacles, Lieutenant Fosdick gave thescouts a pleasant surprise.

  "One reason why I asked you to visit our camp," he remarked, "wasbecause I fancied all of you might be glad of a chance to take aspin aloft in an aeroplane. You may like that, if it happens thatyou've never enjoyed the experience up to now."

  Hugh immediately turned to the army man and expressed his pleasure.

  "I've often hoped to have a chance to go up," he said, "but hardlythought it would happen so soon. And we'll all be only too gladto accept your invitation."

  "I should say so," added Ralph.

  Bud did not say a single word, and turning to ascertain why, theofficer found a smile of the "kind that won't come off" spreadingall the way across his face. It was evident that Bud was too happyfor words. He had long dreamed of spinning through the uppercurrents in one of those bustling airships that are becoming morecommon every day; but, like Hugh, he had not expected the goldenopportunity to be sprung upon him so soon.

  As they walked along, the officer once more started to question themregarding the two strange men who seemed to be hanging about withoutany known business to keep them up in this unsettled region.

  "I think you said that one of them looked in through the window ofyour shack night before last, and then fled when you let him seethat he had been discovered?" he remarked to Hugh.

  "Yes, and we made sure that he had been there by examining the soilunder the window. It is a part of a scout's education, you know,sir, looking for signs. We found them, too, marks of a long narrowshoe, that told us the man could never be a hobo but must be agentleman. After they had rummaged through our cabin while we wereaway, we found the same marks before the door, and indenting tracksof our own, so that proved just when the fellows must have been around."

  The army officer nodded his head and laughed softly.

  "I understand what you mean, son," he remarked, "and it quite ticklesme to know how clever our boys are getting under the influence ofthis new scout movement. It is bound to wake up most lads and setthem to thinking for themselves, years before they would have beenaroused under the old way. And I must say I'm heartily in sympathywith the work of the association. It's the finest thing that everhappened for the boys of America. If I had sons, they should everyoneof them join one of your troops as soon as they were old enough."

  "We forgot to tell you, sir, about hearing those two men rushingthrough the dense woods and thickets just after the explosion lastnight. They seemed to act as if more or less frightened; and Iguessed that they may have had a narrow escape from being struck byyour bomb."

  At that, the other burst into a laugh.

  "That is a rich joke," he declared. "Possibly in the excitement ofthe moment, after being knocked down by the shock, they may havesuspected that we knew of their presence and were trying toencompass their destruction. But I am glad it happened that way.Perhaps they may have more respect for Uncle Sam's Flying Squadronafter this, and fight shy of running their heads into trouble. I'llhave the guards at the camp doubled at night time, and any stragglerwill be apt to find it pretty warm around there: I'd advise allpersons who have no business at our headquarters to give the camp awide berth, or something not down on the bills might happen, to theirsurprise and consternation as well."

  "If you haven't run across these men, sir," Hugh remarked, "of courseyou could hardly say who they might be."

  "I can give a pretty good guess, though," came the prompt reply. "Wehave been dogged by a pair of spies on former occasions, the one ashort Jap, and the other, much taller, undoubtedly a German. Both ofthem happen to be famous aviators in their own countries, which wasdoubtless why they were sent out to discover what the Flying Squadronwas doing up here in secret."

  "I suppose their main objects would be to learn the composition ofthis latest thing in explosives, and to take note of your war aeroplane,so as to steal the improvements," Hugh went on to say, being desirousof learning all he could while the other was in this communicativeframe of mind.

  "They would actually have to examine the flier before they could learnwhat it represents to the army aviation corps; and we keep it closelyguarded all the time we are not in the air. So much of a secret areseveral things connected with this monoplane, that I cannot mentionthem, even to such patriotic chaps as you are."

  "And we don't blame you, sir, surely we don't!" exclaimed Bud promptly."Us inventors have to be pretty careful how we let people see whatwe've struck! Lots of ideas have been stolen before now. If mylittle scheme turns out what I hope it's going to, I think I'll handit over to the Government for use with their war aeroplanes. Wouldn'tit be just great if a pilot could give his whole attention to the jobof dropping bombs and such like, never bothering himself about thewind currents or anything else? The little Morgan controller wouldmanage all such things automatically. As the saying is, you pressthe button and we'll do all the rest!"

  Hugh did not arouse poor Bud from this happy dream. What was the use?Better let him have a little more pleasure out of it beforeconfronting him with the cold facts acts in the case. He must learnsoon enough that he was several years too late, and that thosewonderful Fathers of Aviation in America, the Wrights, had coveredthe identical ground some time previous with their Fool-proof Flier.

  Luckily they did not have a great distance to go. The boys, who werestaggering under their loads, could not have kept it up much longer,and all of the little party rejoiced when the air pilot announcedthat they were now within sight of their destination.

  Presently they heard voices ahead. Then came a sudden whirr ofmachinery.

  "My associate, Lieutenant Green, is going to take a little spin forsome reason or other," their escort told them. "You see, we canreconnoiter the ground wonderfully from several hundred feet altitude;so that we have on several occasions indulged in a flight just inorder to scout the land. We discovered your presence some timeyesterday, and were at first greatly puzzled on account of yourkhaki suits. We even tried to figure out how a trio of soldiersbelonging to the Home Guard could be camping out in that way. Totell the truth, it was not until I stood by and listened to youtalking about that hole in the forest, that I grasped the true stateof affairs."

  When a large aeroplane built after the monoplane model swiftly aroseand went spinning off, Bud stared as though his whole heart was inhis gaze. He even dropped the burden he had on his back and rubbedhis eyes, as if to make sure it could not be a dream.

  "So that's what you call a war aeroplane, is it?" he asked eagerly.

  "The company building them for the Government meant them for thatparticular purpose," Lieutenant Fosdick told him.

  "Then they are different from all others, I take it?" Hugh advanced.

  "In many respects," was the frank reply. "In the first place theyare much stronger than the ordinary monoplane. In case an attackis intended on the enemy's redoubts, they may be compelled to carryheavy loads in the shape of combustibles and explosives. Besidesthat, they have the recent improvements which I mentioned before asbeing secret, but which will add considerably to their effectiveness.The wires used as guys are all heavier than customary, the motor isstronger, and the planes better able to resist shocks. I have neverseen a Santos Dumont or a Bleriot monoplane anything equal to thisnew departure."

  "It's almost gone out of sight already," declared Bud with a thrillof awe in his ambitious voice.

  "Yes, although my colleague was boring upward at the time we last sawhim; but the speed of that machine is marvelous. No wonder theseforeign spies take the great chances they do, hoping to learn whatUncle Sam is up to. If they could carry back full informationconcerning the new explosive and the novel features of that splendidmonoplane, it would be worth a million dollars, yes, many times that,to their respective governments. Germany, you know, claims to have thebest equipped corps of avi
ators in the world, just as she has the mostremarkable army. And Japan, too, is jealous of being left in the madrace, so she sends out spies to learn all that is going on."

  All these things were exceedingly interesting to the three scouts.They were patriotic boys, like all scouts. Though studying the artsof peace rather than those of cruel war, love of country was acardinal virtue held up constantly before their eyes by LieutenantDenmead. Should danger of any type menace the defenders of the flag,boys like these would be among the first to want to enlist. The BoyScout movement was never intended to discourage a love of country.And if war ever does come to the land we all love, thousands of thosewho rally to her defense will be found to have once been wearers ofthe khaki as Boy Scouts.

  The camp of the Flying Corps was now seen ahead of them. A challengefrom a sentry and the giving of the countersign in a whisper by thelieutenant, told the lads that they were actually in a military camp.Of course this was not their first experience among genuine soldiers,though those whom they once before assisted in the yearly maneuvers assignal corps operators had properly belonged to the State militia.These men were seasoned regulars, serving the Government in thecapacity of aviators and members of the Flying Squadron.

  Lieutenant Fosdick loaned them a pair of glasses through which theycould keep track of the distant aeroplane. They saw it performseveral queer "stunts," as Bud called it, that caused them considerableastonishment.

  "Why, say, it turned completely over that time, just as neat as youplease!" Bud exclaimed, so interested that the others could not getthe glasses away from him again. "There she goes a second time, asslick as anything! I've done the like from a springboard when inswimming, but I never would have believed anybody'd have the nerve toloop the loop three thousand feet up in the air. Oh! what if it didn'tcome right-side up again! What a drop that would be!"

  "Taking chances every time, and that is what our lives are made up ofmostly in the Flying Corps," the officer said grimly, with a shrug."Any day may see our end; but like the men who drop from balloons witha parachute, we get so accustomed to peril that it never bothers us.Constant rubbing up against it makes a man callous, just as workingwith the hands hardens the palms."

  "They seem to be heading back now," observed Ralph.

  "Yes, my colleague has accomplished the object of his little flight,which was partly to practice that turn and partly to look for any signsof spies in the forest below. We're always thinking of interlopers,you see, though up to the time you gave me that information concerningthe two men, I hadn't seen a trace of any watchers around. They musthave kept pretty well under cover all the time."

  "And might have continued to do so, only that our coming bothered them,"Ralph commented. "They didn't know what to make of us. We seemed tobe only boys, and yet we dressed like Uncle Sam's soldiers; and thenthere was Bud trying out his aeroplane model. That must have stirredthem up some. Perhaps they thought, after all, that we might be theones from whom they could steal an idea well worth while."

  "I wouldn't be surprised in the least," said Lieutenant Fosdick. "Andat any rate we're under heavy obligations to you boys for bringing thisimportant information about the spies. I'll try to make your stay hereinteresting to you, in return."