Nellie Leroy--for such the boys learned was her name--broke the
silence, that was growing tense, by asking:

"Is there any hope? Tell me, do you think there is a chance that my
brother may be alive?"

"Yes, there is, certainly!" exclaimed Tom quickly, before Jack had
an opportunity to give, possibly, a less hopeful answer.

"And if he is alive, is there a chance that he may be rescued--that
I may go to him?" she went on.

"Hardly that," said Tom, slowly. "It's a wonder you ever got as
near to the front as this. But as for getting past the German
lines--"

"Then what can I do?" asked Nellie Leroy, eagerly. "Oh, tell me
something that I can do. I'm used to hard work," she went on.
"I've been a Red Cross nurse for some time, and I helped in one big
explosion of a munitions plant in New Jersey before I came over.
That's one reason they let me come--because I proved that I could do
things I" and she did look very efficient, in spite of her paleness,
in spite of her, seeming frailness. There was an indefinable air
about her which showed that she would carry through whatever she
undertook. "I never fainted before--never."

"It's like this," said Tom, and Jack seemed content, now, to let his
chum play the chief role. "When one of us goes down in his machine
back of the enemy's lines, those left over here never really know
what has happened for a few days."