Air Service Boys Over the Atlantic | Page 2

drive a dividing wedge between Ludendorff's two armies,
when a colossal surrender must inevitably follow.
The whole world now knows that this complete break-up of the
Teutons was avoided solely by their demand for an armistice, with an
agreement on terms that were virtually a surrender--absolute in
connection with their navy.
Tom and Jack had displayed considerable ability in carrying out their
work, and could no longer be regarded as novices. Each of them had for
some time been anticipating promotion, and hoped to return home with
the rank of lieutenant at least.
They had been entrusted with a number of especially dangerous
missions, and had met with considerable success in putting these
through. Like most other ambitious young fliers, they hoped soon to
merit the title of "ace," when they could point to at least six proven
victories over rival pilots, with that number of planes sent down in
combat.
On the present occasion they had sallied out "looking for trouble," as

Jack put it; which, in so many words, meant daring any Hun flier to
meet them and engage in a duel among the clouds.
Other planes they could see cruising toward the northwest, and also
flying in an easterly direction; but as a rule these bore signs of being
Allies' machines, and in all probability had Yankee pilots manning
them.
Apparently the Hun airmen were otherwise employed. They seemed to
prefer venturing out after nightfall, gathering in force, and often taking
a strange satisfaction in bombing some Red Cross hospital, where
frequently their own wounded were being treated alongside the
American doughboys.
During the weeks that the Americans were battling in the great
Argonne Forest the two Air Service Boys had contributed to the best of
their ability to each daily drive. Again and again had they taken part in
such dangerous work as fell to the portion of the aviators. Their
activities at that time are set down in the fifth volume of this series,
entitled: "Air Service Boys Flying For Victory."
Frequently they had found themselves in serious trouble, and their
escapes were both numerous and thrilling. Through it all they had been
highly favored, since neither of them had thus far met with a serious
accident. Numbers of their comrades had been registered as "missing,"
or were known to have been shot down and lost.
It was no unusual thing a few days after a flier had gone out and failed
to return at evening, for a Hun pilot to sail over and drop a note telling
that he had fallen in combat, and was buried at a certain place with his
grave so marked that it could be easily found.
There seemed to be a vein of old-time chivalry among the German
airmen even up to the very last, such as had not marked any other
branch of their fighting forces, certainly not the navy. And the
Americans made it a point to return this courtesy whenever an
opportunity arose.

Tom was proud of his ability to execute that difficult feat known as a
"nose-dive." More than once it had extricated him from a "pocket" into
which he found himself placed by circumstances, with three or more
enemy planes circling around and bombarding him from their active
guns.
At such times the only hope of the attacked pilot lay in his ability to
drop down as if his machine had received a fatal blow and when once
far below the danger point again to recover an even keel.
Jack never doubted what the result would be, having the utmost
confidence in his comrade. The wind rushed past his ears as they
pitched downward; and just when objects on the ground loomed up
suggestively there was the expected sudden shift of the lever, a
consequent change in the pointing of the plane's nose, and then they
found themselves on the new level, with the motor again humming
merrily.
Jack was on the alert and quickly discovered the object that just then
enlisted their whole attention. As he had suspected when using the
glasses from the higher level, it was a Yankee bomber that lay partly
hidden among the bushes where it had fallen. He could easily see the
Indian head marking the broken wing.
The pilot was sitting near by as though unable to make a run for it,
although Jack imagined he must suspect the approach of danger, for he
gripped something that glinted in the sunlight in his right hand. It was,
of course, an automatic pistol.
Looking hastily around Jack glimpsed the creeping figures of the two
Germans who, having seen the fall of the Yankee plane, must have
come out from some place of concealment and were bent on finishing
the pilot, or at least taking him prisoner. They had almost reached