uldn't I
give to be able to be up in the air with those boys now?" and Jack
motioned to the scouts who were flitting around in the dark clouds,
seeking for that which menaced the chief city of the French nation.

"I'd like to be there myself," said Tom. "And if this keeps up much
longer I'm going to ask permission for us to go up and see what we can
do."

"Think they'll let us?"

"Well, they can't any more than turn us down. And we've got to get at it
in a hurry, too, or we'll have to report back at our regular station. We
aren't doing anything here, except sit around."

"No, we must get busy, that's a fact," said Jack. "It's about time we
downed some Hun scout, or broke up one of their 'circus' attacks. I've
almost forgotten how a joy stick feels."

A "joy stick" is a contrivance on an aeroplane by the manipulation of
which the plane is held on a level keel. If the joy stick control is
released, either by accident (say when the pilot is wounded in a fight),
or purposely, the plane at once begins to climb, caking its passenger
out of danger.

Once the joy stick is released it gradually comes back toward the
pilot. The machine climbs until the angle formed is too great for it to
continue, or for the motor to pull it. Then it may stop for an instant
when the motor, being heavier, pulls the plane over and there begins the
terrible "nose spinning dive," from which there is no escape unless the
pilot gets control of his machine again, or manages to reach the joy
stick.

"Well, we'll have to get in the game again soon," said Tom. "But what do
you say to taking a taxi? This explosion is farther than I thought."

Jack agreed, and they were soon at the place where the last German shell
had fallen--that is as near as the police would permit.

A house had been struck, and several persons, two of them children,
killed. But, as before, the military damage done was nothing. The
Germans might be spreading their gospel of fear, but they were not
advancing their army that way.

As Tom and Jack stood near the place where a hole had been blown through
the house, another explosion, farther off, was heard, and there was a
momentary flare in the sky that told of the arrival of another shell.

For a few seconds there was something like a panic, and then a voice
struck up the "Marseillaise," and the crowd joined in. It was their
defiance to the savage Hun.

A few shots were fired by the Germans, but none of them did much damage,