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[128] 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[129] 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[130] 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 a?roplane, 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 a?rial 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.
[131]
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 a?roplane 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[132] 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.
