size, like
oncoming birds. But they were not birds. Or rather, they were human
birds.

The specks in the sky were Caudrons. A small aerial fleet was returning
from a night raid over the German ammunition dumps and troop centers,
and the anxiety of the watching young men was as to whether or not all
the airmen, among whom were numbered some of Uncle Sam's boys, had
returned in safety. Too many times they did not--that is not all--for
the Hun anti-aircraft guns found their marks with deadly precision at
times.

The Caudrons appeared larger as they neared the landing field, and Tom
and Jack, raising their binoculars, scanned the ranks--for all the world
like a flock of wild geese--to see if they could determine who of their
friends, if any, were missing.

"How do you make it, Tom?" asked Jack, after an anxious pause.

"I'm not sure, but I can count only eight."

"That's what I make it. And ten of 'em went out last night, didn't
they?"

"So I heard. And if only eight come back it means that at least four of
our airmen have either been killed or captured."

"One fate is almost as bad as the other, where you have to be captured
by the Boches," murmured Jack. "They're just what their name
indicates--beasts!"

"You said something!" came heartily from Tom. "And yet, to the credit of
airmen in general, let it be said that the German aviators treat their
fellow, prisoners better than the Hun infantrymen do."

"So I've heard. Well, here's hoping neither of us, nor any more of our
friends, falls over the German lines. But look, Tom!" and Jack pointed
excitedly. "Are my eyes seeing things, or is that another Caudron
looming up there, the last in the line? Take a look and tell me. I don't
want to hope too much, yet maybe we have lost only one, and not two."

Tom changed the focus of his powerful glasses slightly and peered in the
direction indicated by his chum. Then he remarked, with the binoculars
still at his eyes:

"Yes, that's another of our machines! But she's coming in slowly. Must
have been hit a couple of times."

"She's lucky, then, to get back at all. But let's go over and hear what
the news is. I hope they blew up a lot of the Huns last night."

"Same here!"

The aircraft were near enough now for the throbbing of their big motors
to be heard, and Tom and Jack, each an officer now because of gallant
work, hurried across the landing field.

It was early morning, and they had come, after a night's rest, t