y. "In the first place they
are much stronger than the ordinary monoplane. In case an attack
is intended on the enemy's redoubts, they may be compelled to carry
heavy loads in the shape of combustibles and explosives. Besides
that, they have the recent improvements which I mentioned before as
being secret, but which will add considerably to their effectiveness.
The wires used as guys are all heavier than customary, the motor is
stronger, and the planes better able to resist shocks. I have never
seen a Santos Dumont or a Bleriot monoplane anything equal to this
new departure."

"It's almost gone out of sight already," declared Bud with a thrill
of awe in his ambitious voice.

"Yes, although my colleague was boring upward at the time we last saw
him; but the speed of that machine is marvelous. No wonder these
foreign spies take the great chances they do, hoping to learn what
Uncle Sam is up to. If they could carry back full information
concerning the new explosive and the novel features of that splendid
monoplane, it would be worth a million dollars, yes, many times that,
to their respective governments. Germany, you know, claims to have the
best equipped corps of aviators in the world, just as she has the most
remarkable army. And Japan, too, is jealous of being left in the mad
race, so she sends out spies to learn all that is going on."

All these things were exceedingly interesting to the three scouts.
They were patriotic boys, like all scouts. Though studying the arts
of peace rather than those of cruel war, love of country was a
cardinal virtue held up constantly before their eyes by Lieutenant
Denmead. Should danger of any type menace the defenders of the flag,
boys like these would be among the first to want to enlist. The Boy
Scout movement was never intended to discourage a love of country.
And if war ever does come to the land we all love, thousands of those
who rally to her defense will be found to have once been wearers of
the khaki as Boy Scouts.

The camp of the Flying Corps was now seen ahead of them. A challenge
from a sentry and the giving of the countersign in a whisper by the
lieutenant, told the lads that they were actually in a military camp.
Of course this was not their first experience among genuine soldiers,
though those whom they once before assisted in the yearly maneuvers as
signal corps operators had properly belonged to the State militia.
These men were seasoned regulars, serv