ement.

It was a long day, and full of thrilling happenings. Other battles in
the air occurred along the extended front, and not all of them wound up
in victories for the Allied forces. Some distinguished Teuton "aces"
were flying on that occasion who would not be denied their toll. But the
Lafayette Escadrille lost none of its members, Tom and Jack were glad to
learn.

Night finally set its pall over the field where all day long the hostile
armies had fought and bled. The French were grimly holding their seized
terrain, and hurling the Germans back again and again. The serried ranks
had pushed forward up to within an hour of sunset; then, apparently
realizing that it was a hopeless task, the Teuton High Command had given
the order to withdraw.

On the following day the battle was not resumed. The French had their
hands full in strengthening and fortifying their new positions, while
the Germans must have been so severely punished and "shot to pieces"
that they needed time to effect the reorganization of their various
battalions and regiments.

So several days passed, and nothing out of the ordinary happened, at
least in connection with the two chums. Tom's slight wound was healing
fast, and he was told by the army surgeon that it would be quite safe
for him to go up again at any time now, a fact that pleased the young
aviator immensely.

"I'm going to make a record for myself," he told his chum.

"You're the fellow to do it," answered Jack. "Wish I was in your shoes."

CHAPTER XI

A SHOW ON THE FRONT

While the fighting on the Verdun front was furious at times, with
prolonged spasms when the Germans seemed determined to recover the
territory they had lost to the French, there were also periods of almost
total calm.

During these quiet periods the members of the American escadrille were
sometimes hard pushed for ways in which to pass the time away, and amuse
themselves. Inaction fretted most of them, since they were endowed with
that restless spirit which seems to be the inherent trait of most
Americans.

Many were the expedients tried by means of which some amusement might be
extracted from life. Their daily business was so exciting that these
slumps left the aviators nervous and unhappy. It was like the sailor
who, bowling along under full pressure of canvas for weeks, in the old
days of the sailing vessel, suddenly found himself in the "doldrums,"
and becalmed for what might be an indefinite per