quirements necessary to his function as pilot.

"There, I saw what looked like a decent spot, Tom--we just passed it by
on the right. Try to turn around, and we'll look it over again as we go.
Seemed plenty big enough, I thought, though I'd like to have a second
peep before we decide to try to land."

This time Tom, too, used his eyes to good advantage, and hardly had they
swung past before Jack was asking, in rather subdued tones now:

"How about it, Tom? Think we can make the riffle all right, in this poor
light?"

Tom did not hesitate to answer this important question.

"I'm willing to try, Jack. If we're carrying our usual luck we'll land
so easy we could hardly break an egg between us. Be ready for your part
of the game now."

Jack waited, with his nerves all a-tremble. He knew that everything must
depend on Tom's success in effecting a safe landing. Any breakage might
upset all their plans, and possibly result in their ultimate capture by
the Huns; for when morning came they would have to expose themselves in
seeking food, and once they were identified as Americans they would soon
be run down.

If ever Tom had reason to exert himself to the utmost in order to make a
safe landing, it was then. He came up in the face of what little breeze
was stirring, just as a bird invariably alights against the wind, and
not with it.

Jack held his breath. Nearer and still nearer they dropped. Now he felt
the rubber-tired wheels under the plane strike the ground lightly. They
were actually rolling along, jolting more or less, it was true, but
nothing so very unusual after all.

With a slight jar the plane came to a sudden stop. Jack, who had freed
himself from his safety belt in preparation for this moment, was over
like a flash; but although there was a slight slant to the ground the
plane displayed no inclination to run backwards.

"Beautifully done," Jack hastened to say.

"Not so loud!" cautioned the other. "We don't know where we are yet, you
see. Here's green grass around us, and trees close by. It may be some
back dooryard to a house, for all we can tell."

"You just grazed the top of that last tree, Tom--the weeping willowy
kind of one over there--but it had to be done to make the landing.
Where do we go from here?"

Perhaps that phrase fell naturally from Jack's lips, for he had been
singing a song with those identical words earlier on that very evening,
with some of his rollicking companions at the Y. M.