t to keep us out in the air. That will give us a lot more time with
the planes. Too bad your mother won't let you fly. You could fly home. I
would do it if _I_ owned a plane. Jardin is sick of his."

He went off whistling, and Bill walked wearily to the chapel.

Days went by. The country trembled for the children and young men and
women who were being stricken, the teachers redoubled their efforts to
keep the boys well and happy, and the boys themselves regarded the
affair as a happy interlude in the year's grind.

Our four boys spent all their leisure time on the aviation field. The
Jardin plane seemed possessed. Every night, after the mechanicians had
spent the day working over it, the machine would go sailing off the
field, purring and humming and flying smoothly and evenly. And as surely
as morning came something was wrong! Jardin was frantic. Frank, always
at his elbow, irritated him into admissions and statements that he
scarcely recognized as his own when he afterwards thought about them.
He was not wise enough to put two and two together.

Another letter came from Mrs. Sherman, and on the same mail one from
Major Sherman written, not from his cozy desk in quarters, but over at
his office.

Bill looked very grave after he read it. Strangely enough, he had left
his mother's letter for the last. Major Sherman wrote to know what watch
Bill had pawned. A pawnbroker in Lawton had written him to say that he
would be glad to sell the watch left with him as he had a good customer
for it. Major Sherman wanted an explanation from Bill. He had simply
written the man to hold the watch until he had heard from his son.

Bill was stunned. What it all meant he could not guess. Something
strange was in the air. He felt the influence of evil but could not
place it. Taking his mother's letter, still unopened, he walked slowly
to the library. It was full of boys, all laughing and talking. It had
become a lounging room during the quarantine. Bill could not read there.
Slamming on his cap, he wandered over to the hangar. Climbing into
Ernest's plane, he huddled down where he was effectually hidden. He knew
that Ernest would not be out of the chemistry laboratory for hours, and
he tore open his mother's letter and read it rapidly.

Lee had been convicted! Bill groaned in anguish as he read the words.
He was to be taken to Leavenworth as soon as a couple more trials were
held so that all the prisoners could go under the care of on