e?" demanded Earl.

"Oh, yes, but somehow I feel so much safer up in the air than I do in
the trenches."

"There aren't many safe spots left in Europe now anyway, I guess,"
remarked Earl.

"Nor any other place in the world, for that matter," added Leon. "Just
stop a minute and think where there have been battles fought in this
war."

"Pretty nearly every place you can think of," said Earl.

"I know it; in France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Austria, Italy,
Serbia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, China--"

"What was in China?" demanded Earl.

"Kiao Chau. Don't you know that port the Japanese and English took
from the Germans?"

"That's right. Then there is or has been fighting in Armenia, Persia,
Mesopotamia, Africa, the Marshall Islands and all those islands down
around Australia; Zeppelins have raided England."

"Yes," exclaimed Leon, "and sea fights in the Atlantic and Pacific, the
Mediterranean, in the North Sea and the Baltic, the Indian Ocean and
the Carribean Sea and I don't know where else."

"It's awful, isn't it?" said Earl. "And right at home in America the
Germans have been blowing up factories that were making arms for the
Allies; they've also been putting bombs on ships."

"Why doesn't your country stop that?" asked Jacques.

"Don't ask me," exclaimed Earl. "I wish they would; if they'd deal
with some of those plotters the way any European government would, I
think all that trouble would end. We're too good to people in the
United States."

"That's right," agreed Leon. "We offer them our hospitality and give
them a chance to earn a good living and then they turn on us."

"Some day the people of the United States will turn on them," said
Jacques solemnly.

"That's just what will happen," exclaimed Earl. "They will stand for a
lot over there and they don't get angry easily; people like that are
the worst kind when they do lose their tempers. One of these days
they'll all get mad and those trouble makers will wake up to find that
they've been playing with fire."

"There's our ambulance," said Jacques suddenly. "Come along."

CHAPTER XXVII

CONCLUSION

"A gas attack," said a soldier to Jacques as he and his two companions
hastened out of the cottage and started to climb into the ambulance.

"The Boches using gas again?" exclaimed Jacques. "That's bad."

"That means work for the ambulances and hospitals," remarked Leon
soberly. "That's the worst death of all."

"But we all