"He'd have said so if that was the case," he remarked as he and his
chum prepared to report at headquarters, telling the messenger they
would soon follow him.

"Ah, young gentlemen, I am glad to see, you!" exclaimed the
commander, and it was as friends that he greeted Tom and Jack and
not as military subordinates. "Do you want to do me one last
favor?"

"A thousand if we can!" exclaimed Jack, for he and Tom had caught
something of the French enthusiasm of manner, from having associated
with the brave airmen so long.

"Good! Then I shall feel free to ask. Know then, that I am a
little short-handed in experienced airmen. The Huns have taken
heavy toll of us these last few days," he went on sorrowfully, and
Torn and Jack knew this to be so, for two aces, as well as some
pilots of lesser magnitude, had been shot down. But ample revenge
had been taken.

"By all rights you are entitled to a holiday before you join your
new command, under the great Pershing," went on the flight
commander. "However, as I need the services of two brave men to do
patrol duty, I appeal to you. There is a machine gun nest,
somewhere in the Boche lines, that has been doing terrible
execution. If you could find the battery, and signal its location,
we might destroy it with our artillery, and so save many brave lives
for France," he went on. "I do not like to ask you--"

"Tell 'em to get out the machines!" interrupted Jack. "We were just