wing morning, surely he need not have taken all this time; nor
would he have given Tom that paper, undoubtedly carrying explicit
instructions.

How the minutes dragged! Jack thought it an eternity before he saw Tom
and the captain separate. He was glad to notice that his chum once more
headed in the direction of the spot where they had been seated on a
bench back of the long row of frame buildings used for permanent hangars
at the Bar-le-Duc aviation field.

Yes, Tom had evidently been told something that pleased him very much.
His smile admitted the fact, and Jack knew by now just how to read the
face of his comrade so as to get a good idea of what was passing in his
mind.

"Looks like good news, Tom," he cried out, for motors were rattling and
throbbing, mechanicians and helpers, as well as pilots, calling to one
another, and all manner of sounds combining to make a great racket.

Tom shrugged his shoulders in a non-committal way, which might mean a
whole lot, and again might express a small fraction of disappointment.

"Yes, I've been given a job, if that's what you mean," he admitted, as
he dropped down once more on the bench alongside Jack, and threw one leg
over the other.

"More fighting to-morrow, possibly?" queried Jack, anxiously. But he
found his curiosity further whetted when Tom shook his head in the
negative.

"Not necessarily this time, it seems," he went on to say; "though of
course you never can tell what you'll strike when once you pass fifty
miles, more or less, behind the enemy front."

Jack pursed his lips up as if about to whistle, but he made no sound. It
was only a visible indication of surprise on his part--surprise, and an
eager desire to know just what his chum was so slow in telling him.

"Another bombing raid, then, is it?"

"Never a bomb going along this time," came the puzzling answer. "Nor is
there going to be a big bunch of planes starting out. I'm to be the only
pilot in the game this time, Jack."

"You're knocking me silly with that, Tom," protested the other young
aviator. "I can see the twinkle in your eyes, as if you were holding
something back, so as to tantalize me. Are you free to tell me what this
business of yours it is the captain has just handed over to you?"

"Oh, surely, Jack. He told me I could take _one_ fellow into my
confidence, and no more. So I mean to tell you all about it."

Tom turned and cast a careful look around. They were not very close to
any o