lyer whom
he, McGee, had brought down, an order disclosing the very fact that the
raid had been planned on Intelligence reports. And where had Siddons
gone that day after landing at Vitry on the slenderest excuse? The
French Major said he had taken off within an hour. And the very next
morning the squadron stumbled into a net spread by von Herzmann, and but
for the timely and unexpected arrival of a large group of French Spads
the harvest would have been great indeed. Could it be that Siddons had
crossed the lines the previous afternoon, escaping Archie fire by a
simple code of air signals, and disclosed the entire plan to the enemy?

McGee felt a hot wave of ungovernable anger sweep over him. He no longer
had any doubts whatsoever. Two and two make four. Siddons was a traitor
to his country. To his country? No, doubtless he was one of the many who
had been trained for years against this very hour of need. On false
records he had gained admission to the American Air Force, and now--

McGee came out of the cloud into the clear sunlight, and began searching
the sky for the Nieuport. It was not to be seen. He flew on, encountered
other clouds, came out again, but the Nieuport had miraculously
disappeared.

McGee flew steadily northeast until he spotted an exceptionally large
group of enemy planes, working up from the direction in which he was
headed.

It was time to turn around. He was quite too far into enemy territory to
feel comfortable, and that swarm of planes made him unusually homesick,
even though they were far below him.

But just as he banked into a left turn he noticed that they were nosing
down, sharply. He flew along the misty edge of a cloud, watching
closely. Down, down, they went, becoming mere specks against the
blue-grey ground haze.

They were about to make a landing! There could be no doubt of it, though
at this distance and altitude he could not make out their hangars. On
down they dropped, until at last they seemed to be engulfed by a greyish
sea that shut out all definite form.

McGee had come for information, and here it was within his grasp if he
were only willing to take a chance.

The strata of clouds against which he was flying stretched in the
general direction of the place where he had lost sight of the large
flight of planes.

He ducked into the clouds and drove along until he estimated that he was
somewhere in the right neighborhood.

Coming out into an open sky he located a con