occupied by a Hun general as headquarters?"

"That would be a strange coincidence, I should call it, Jack."

"But you say we've just got to land somewhere," urged the other.

"No other way out of the mess. It's either that or else take big risks
of being captured just back of the Boche lines. Of the two, our chances
are better here than there."

"Well, I bow to your judgment, Tom. You know best. But we'd better drop
to a much lower level right away, hadn't we?"

"That goes without saying," replied the pilot, setting about taking a
dip, at which he was very expert. "As it is now we can't see much of
where we are; and the rest of the gang seem to have cleared out
entirely. You can hear the stir of their passage getting fainter and
fainter all the while."

"We'll have to go pretty far down if we hope to glimpse anything of the
character of the country in this poor light," Jack continued, "and, of
course, it'll be necessary for you to pick out a clear place for a
landing."

"Unless we can we stand to have a smash that'll just ruin everything,"
Tom cheerfully assured him.

They had begun to fall rapidly. Tom managed it so that this maneuver was
carried out in the best possible way calculated to conserve their very
limited stock of petrol.

Gradually they began to get a clearer view of the ground, which until
then had only appeared in vague outlines to their eyes. Jack soon
announced a discovery.

"I can begin to make out the trees in patches, Tom. And see there! That
must be the river winding along like a snake over yonder. Didn't we
decide that the chateau stood within sight of this very stream, Tom?"

"According to what that Lorrainer told me, it did; and on the left bank
in the bargain," admitted Tom.

"Good! And unless I've lost my reckoning entirely I should say we're on
the left bank of the river right now."

"Just what we are," came the reassuring answer. "I'm going to drop down
another peg or two, so we can pick up some landmark and get our bearings
settled. No use in groping about as if we were in a fog. I'll shut off
most of our speed and just loaf along. We've got to make that gas see us
through, you know, Jack."

"I hope it will, I certainly do!"

Presently the air service boys found themselves passing slowly along
over the small ridge that seemed to run parallel with the winding Meuse,
though at some little distance from it.

CHAPTER XIX

TOM LEADS THE WAY

"SEE anything yet, Jack