by E. J. Craine
CHAPTER X. STUNTS
Truly enough, word had come from the missing aviator, or, if notdirectly from him, at least from his captors. The German airmen, fallingin with the chivalry which had been initiated by the French and English,and later followed by the Americans, had seen fit to inform the comradesof the captured man of his whereabouts.
"Where is he? What happened to him?" asked several, as all crowdedaround Tom and Jack to hear the news.
Jack, reading the note, told them. The missive was written in very goodEnglish, though in a German hand. It stated that Harry Leroy had beenshot down in his plane while over the German lines, and had fallen in alonely spot, wounded.
The wound was not serious, it was stated, and the prisoner was doingas well as could be expected, but he would remain in the hands of hiscaptors until the end of the war. The reason his whereabouts was notmentioned before was that the Germans did not know they had one of theAllied aviators in their midst.
Leroy had not only fallen in a lonely spot, but he was made unconsciousby his fall and injuries, and when he recovered he was lying near hisalmost demolished plane.
He managed to get out his log book and other confidential papers, andset fire to them and the plane with the gasoline that still remained inthe tank. He destroyed them so they might not fall into the hands of theGermans, a fate he knew would be his own shortly.
But Harry Leroy was not doomed to instant capture. The blaze caused byhis burning aeroplane attracted the attention of a peasant, who had notbeen deported when the enemy overran his country, for the young aviatorhad fallen in a spot well back of the front lines. This French peasanttook Harry to his little farm and hid him in the barn. There the man,his wife, and his granddaughters, looked after the injured aviator,feeding him and binding up his hurts. It was a great risk they took,and Harry Leroy knew it as well as they. But for nearly two weeks heremained hidden, and this probably saved his life, for he got bettertreatment at the farmhouse than he would, as an enemy, have received ina German hospital.
But such good luck could not last. Suspicion that Americans were hiddenin the Frenchman's barn began to spread through the country, and ratherthan bring discovery on his friends, Leroy left the barn one night.
He had a desperate hope that he might reach his own lines, as he was nowpretty well recovered from his 'Injuries, but it was not to be. He wascaptured by a German patrol. But by his quick action Harry Leroy hadremoved suspicion from the farmer, which was exactly what he wished todo.
The Germans, rejoicing over their capture, took the young aviator to thenearest prison camp, and there he was put in custody, together with someunfortunate French and English. The tide of war had turned against HarryLeroy.
So it came about that, some time after he had been posted as missing andwhen it was surely thought that he was dead, Harry Leroy was found to beamong the living, though a prisoner.
"This will be great news for his sister!" exclaimed Jack, as the notedropped by the German airman was read over and over again.
"Yes, she'll be delighted," agreed Tom. "We must hurry back and tellher."
"And that isn't all," went on Jack. "We must try to figure out a way torescue Harry."
"You can't do that," declared a French ace, one with whom the airservice boys had often flown.
"Why not?" asked Tom.
"It's out of the question," was the answer. "There has never been arescue yet from behind the German lines. Or, if there has been, it'slike a blue moon."
"Well, we can try," declared Jack, and Tom nodded his head in agreement.
"Don't count too much on it," added another of their friends. "Harry maynot even be where this note says he is."
"Do you mean that the Germans would say what isn't so?" asked Tom.
"Of course! Naturally!" was the answer. "But even if they did not inthis case, even if they have truly said where Leroy is, he may be movedat any time--sent to some other prison, or made to work in the mines orat perhaps something far worse."
Tom and Jack realized that this might be so, and they felt that therewas no easy task ahead of them in trying to rescue their chum from thehands of the Germans. But they were not youths who gave up easily.
"May we keep this note?" asked Tom, as he and Jack got ready to depart.Having fallen on the camp of the escadrille with which they wereformerly quartered, it was, strictly speaking, the property of theairmen there. But having been told how much the sister of the prisonerwould appreciate it, the commanding officer gave permission for Tom andJack to take the glove and note with them.
"Let us know if you rescue him, Comrades!" called the Frenchmen to thetwo lads, as they started back for their own camp.
"We will," was the answer.
Nellie Leroy's joy in the news that her brother was alive was temperedby the fact that he was a German prisoner.
"But we're going to get him!" declared Tom even though he realized, ashe said it, that it with almost a forlorn hope.
"You are so good," murmured the girl.
Jack and Tom spent a few happy hours in Paris, with Nellie andBessie--the last of their leave--and then, bidding the girls and Mrs.Gleason farewell, they reported back to the American aerodrome, wherethe young airmen were cordially welcomed.
There they found much to do, and events followed one another so rapidlyat this stage of the World War that Tom and Jack, after their return,had little time for anything but flying and teaching others what theyknew of air work. They had no opportunity to do anything toward therescue of Harry Leroy; and, indeed, they were at a loss how to proceed.They were just hoping that something would transpire to give them astarting point.
"We'll have to leave it to luck for a while," said Torn.
"Or fate," added Jack.
"Well, fate plays no small part in an airman's life," returned Tom."While we are no more superstitions than any other soldiers, yet thereare few airmen who do not carry some sort of mascot or good-luck piece.You know that, Jack."
And even the casual reader of the exploits of the aviators must havebeen impressed with the fact that often the merest incident--or accidentis responsible for life or death.
Death often passes within hair's breadth of the intrepid fliers, andsome of them do not know it until after they have made a landing andhave seen the bullet holes in their machine--holes that indicate howclose the missiles have passed to them.
So, in a way, both Tom and Jack believed in luck, and they both believedthat this same luck might point out to them a way of rescuing HarryLeroy.
Meanwhile they were kept busy. After the big battle in the air matterswere quiet for a time on their sector of the front. The arrival of newfliers from America made it necessary to instruct them, and to this Tom,Jack and other veterans were detailed.
Then began a series of what Jack called "stunts." In order to inspirethe new pupils with confidence, the older flying men--not always olderin years--would go aloft in their single planes and do all sorts oftrick flying. Some of the pupils--the more daring, of course--wished toimitate these, but of course they were not allowed.
The pupils were first allowed merely to go with an experienced man.This, of course, they had done at the flying schools in the UnitedStates, and had flown alone. But they had to start all over again whenon French soil, for here they were exposed, any time, to an attack froma Hun plane.
After they had, it was thought, got sufficient experience to undertakethese trick features by themselves, they were allowed to make trialflights, but not over the enemy lines.
Tom and Jack gave the best that was in them to these enthusiasticpupils, and there was much good material.
"What are you going to do to-day, Jack?" asked Tom one morning, as theywent out after breakfast to get into their "busses," as they dubbedtheir machines.
"Oh, got orders to do some spiral and somersault stunts for the benefitof some huns." ("Hun," used in this connection, not referring to theGermans. "Hun" is the slang term for student aviators, tacked on them bymore experienced fli
ers.)
"Same here. Good little bunch of huns in camp now."
Tom nodded in agreement, and the two were soon preparing to climb aloft.
With a watching group of eager young men on the ground below, in companywith an instructor who would point out the way certain feats were done,Torn and Jack began climbing. Presently they were fairly tumbling aboutlike pigeons, seeming to fall, but quickly straightening out on a levelkeel and coming to the ground almost as lightly as feathers.
"A good landing is essential if one would become a good airman," statedthe instructor. "In fact I may say it is the hardest half of the game.For it is comparatively easy to leave the earth. It is the coming backthat is difficult, like the Irishman who said it wasn't the fall thathurts, it was the stopping."
"Give 'em a bit of zooming now," the instructor said to Tom and Jack."The boys may have to use that any time they're up and a Boche comes atthem."
"Zooming," he went on to the pupils, "is rising and falling in a seriesof abrupt curves like those in a roller-coaster railway. It is a veryuseful stunt to be master of, for it enables one to rise quickly whenconfronting a field barrier, or to get out of range of a Hun machinegun."
Tom undertook this feature of the instruction, as Jack signaled that hisaeroplane was out of gasoline, and soon the former was rolling acrossthe aviation field, seemingly straight toward a row of tall trees.
"He'll hit 'em sure!" cried one student.
"Watch him," ordered the instructor.
With a quick pull on the lever that controlled the rudder, Tom senthimself aloft, but not before a curious thing happened.
On the ground where it had been dropped was a tunic, or airman'sfur-lined jacket. As Tom's machine "zoomed," the tail skid caught thisjacket and took it aloft.
Tom did not seem to be aware of this, though he must have felt that hismachine was a bit sluggish in the climbs. However, he went through withhis performance, doing some beautiful "zooming," and then, as he wasflying high and getting ready to do a spiral nose dive, the tunicdetached itself from his skid and fell.
Just at this moment Jack came out from the hangar and, looking aloft andnoting Tom's machine, saw the falling jacket. His heart turned sickand faint, for, unaware of what had happened, he thought his chum hadtumbled out while at a great height. For the tunic, turning over andover as it sailed earthward, did resemble a falling body.
"Oh, Tom! Tom! How did it happen?" murmured Jack.
The others, laughing, told him that it was nothing serious, but Jacklooked a bit worried until the empty jacket fell on the grass and, alittle later, Tom himself came down smiling from aloft, all unaware ofthe excitement he had caused.