all languages are the same!" Merritt told him, more to keep Tubby
quiet than for any other reason.

"The question is, who could that message have been for?" Rob was
muttering.

"There, he starts in again," said Tubby. "He's a most persistent sort of
chap, I take it, and means that the other fellow will get that message,
sooner or later. What 'coast is clear'? Why, we're miles and miles away
from the sea-shore now, ain't we? And what under the sun does he mean
by 'safe landing'? Where's the boat going to come from, somebody tell me
quick?"

"I think I know," Rob had just managed to say in reply, when all of them
were suddenly startled to hear a queer, rattling sound from behind that
kept swiftly drawing nearer and nearer, until presently Tubby, in sheer
alarm, dropped flat to the ground.

As he lay sprawled out on his back, judge of his astonishment when he
saw some object, that was like an immense bird, pass over not fifty feet
above him. It was heading directly for the spot where the light of the
lantern glowed in that open field.

The shuttle sound abruptly ceased.

"He's shut off his engine," remarked Rob, apparently intensely
interested.

"Yes, because he means to alight in the field," added Merritt.

Tubby suddenly comprehended what it must apparently mean. He hastened to
scramble to his feet again, and no sooner had he accomplished this than
he was, of course, busily engaged with his questions.

"Was that an aeroplane, Rob?"

"It certainly was," he was informed.

"Then that signal was for the pilot; that was what it meant by 'safe
landing here' and 'coast clear!' Oh! I begin to see it all now. The
'important news' he mentioned in his message must be something a spy has
gathered, and which he wants this air-pilot to carry back to the German
lines for him? Am I on the right track, Rob?"

"Yes; that's about what it all means, Tubby."

"Then that machine must have been one of the Taube aeroplanes they told
us about?"

"We expect it is," replied the obliging Rob.

"It must have landed by now, then, hasn't it?"

"As we can hear nothing moving, that's about the way things stand,"
replied the patrol leader.

"Please shut up, Tubby, so we can listen," Merritt suggested, not
unkindly, but with the authority that his position as second in command
of the Eagle Patrol allowed him to display.

Tubby thereupon collapsed; that is, he simply mumbled to himself, while
staring as hard as he could toward the s