e stockade.

"How was that?" asked Jack.

"The airmen claimed you as their prey, and the infantrymen said they
were entitled to call you theirs. So, even in the midst of the fire and
destruction, the commandant had to order you put in the stockade until
he could decide whose prisoners you were. The infantrymen said they had
captured you, but the airmen said their fire had brought down your
plane."

"Well, that was partly true," said Tom. "But it was an explosion from
below that knocked us out temporarily. But we're all right now. And so
are you, aren't you, Dad?"

"Yes, but I worried a lot, not knowing what had happened to you, Tom,
and being unable to guess what would happen to me. I was in the hands of
clever and unscrupulous enemies. How clever they were you can judge when
I tell you they took me right out of Paris. Perhaps the bombardment made
it easier. But tell me--what of the big guns?"

"Some of them are out of commission, thanks to your brave boy and his
comrades," said Major de Trouville.

"Good!" cried Mr. Raymond. "Some rumor to that effect sifted in to me
there, but it seemed too good to be true. The Germans must be wild with
rage."

"I guess they are," admitted Jack.

"And it would have gone hard with you if they had found you were the
ones responsible," went on Tom's father. "As soon as I was out of my
prison and saw the state of affairs, I managed to get the grenades, and
I decided to rescue the airship men if I could. I never dreamed my own
son would be among them, or that I might be brought away."

And now it but remains to add that because of their exploits Tom and
Jack received new honors at the hands of the grateful French, and,
moreover, were promoted.

Mr. Raymond, who had steadfastly refused to reveal the secret of his
invention to the Huns, immediately turned it over to the Allies.

Word of Mr. Raymond's safety and of the success of Tom and Jack was sent
to those in Bridgeton, and that city had new reasons for being proud of
her sons.

But the war was not over, and the Germans might be expected to develop
other forms of frightfulness besides the long-range guns, which, for the
time being, were silenced. However, the destruction of the factories and
ammunition stores by the raid over the Rhine was a blow that told
heavily on the Hun.

"Well, it seems there's another vacation coming to us," said Tom to Jack
one morning, as they walked away from the breakfast table in their
mess.