Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal

Chapter 11

THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE

"Suppose so?" questioned Fritz as Jimmie made his announcement that the Germans were shooting at the persons in the aeroplane.

"Well, suppose so!" repeated Jimmie indignantly. "Why do you say 'Suppose so'? Where do you get that idea?"

A shrug of the shoulders was the only answer.

"I say," continued Jimmie with still less patience, "what's the big idea--'suppose so'? Do you want them to shoot those boys?"

"I care not," was the answer. "The ones in the aeroplane are trying to escape are they not? Why, then, should they not come back?"

"Well, why shouldn't they get away?" questioned Jimmie.

"Perhaps they have information for your friends, the Russians!"

"Oh, you give me a fine large pain!" stormed the now thoroughly aroused lad. "Every time you see a shadow, you jump on it for a spy. Is your old information so precious that nobody must know it? What makes you so suspicious of everybody and everything?"

"It is not right that the enemy should have knowledge of the movements of the Imperial army," replied Fritz. "That is all."

"And that's quite enough to make me feel that I'd like to be a spy once just for pure spite!" declared Jimmie. "You and your spy business make me tired! We Boy Scouts don't care a rap about your old information!"

"Perhaps," was the smiling response. But Jimmie saw in the smile and the single word a doubt of his statement. He was furious.

He realized, however, that he could gain nothing by a loss of temper. It was with a great effort that he controlled his temper and forced himself to watch the flight of the aeroplane. Deep in his heart the boy was hoping ardently for the success of those in the machine, for he was now fully convinced that it was Ned and his comrades who had attempted the flight. He watched every movement with great interest.

When he saw the figure of his friend hanging to the truss rod beneath the Eagle, Jimmie's heart almost stopped beating, so great was his anxiety for the other's safety. As the sound of the rifle shots reached his ears the lad turned away his head, for he did not in the least doubt that the marksmen had been successful.

When he again looked toward the speeding plane he danced with joy, for he saw the figure still clinging to its perilous position and knew that by great good fortune the chum he loved so dearly was unharmed.

Both Jimmie and Fritz gazed eagerly toward the soaring plane, and observed with great interest the movements incident to Jack's rescue.

"Ha!" ejaculated Fritz, drawing a deep breath, as the two saw that Jack had regained the deck of the Eagle. "He's a plucky boy!"

"You bet he's a plucky boy!" replied Jimmie, condescending to administer a friendly slap upon the Uhlan's shoulder. "They don't make 'em any more so! And he's a Boy Scout, too!" he added.

"But there is still another boy under the machine," observed Fritz.

"Oh, he'll get out all right!" was Jimmie's confident answer. "You'll have to go some with your whole army to beat four Boy Scouts!"

"Maybe," admitted Fritz with another smile. "But I see that your friends are heading this way. Perhaps they intend paying you a little visit before we start to Verdun," he added.

"They sure are headed this way," the lad said. "And the fellow underneath is riding that way on purpose. I wonder why?"

"Who can tell why a boy does anything?" was Fritz's comment.

"I can tell you why Boy Scouts do a great many things," declared Jimmie vehemently. "They do the things that are right and square because it is best and because they are living up to the rules of conduct that they are taught. That's why they do those things!"

"And do the Boy Scout rules teach them to be spies?"

"Now you're talking through your hat again!" was the lad's answer. "Can't you ever get it out of your head that we are not interested in your war? We don't want to mix up in your private scraps."

Fritz wagged his head sagely and smiled in a manner that spoke more eloquently than words of his disbelief in Jimmie's protestations.

"All right," continued the boy, "you don't have to believe it if you don't want to, but if you live long enough we'll show you!"

"You say 'We,'" responded the soldier. "It would appear that you expect your friends to join you presently for some enterprise."

"Well, it looks as if they expect to come pretty close to this place, whether I expect them to or not," observed Jimmie, turning his eyes toward the approaching plane and shading his eyes with a hand.

"We shall return to the stables," decided Fritz. "Come."

A movement of the Uhlan attracted Jimmie's attention. The lad saw a glint of steel and wheeled to observe the erstwhile peaceable man turned into an entirely different sort of individual, with his short saber held in his hand in a threatening manner.

For a moment the boy contemplated flight. An instant's reflection, however, showed him the folly of such an attempt. He knew that, although he was fleet of foot and believed that he could easily outrun the other, he would be no match for a bullet if one should be sent after him. Besides, he saw that his friends could not possibly reach him with the plane if he should leave the elevated position on which he stood.

Concluding that his only hope of escape lay in patient waiting, the lad turned reluctantly from his position and prepared to accompany Fritz as he had been directed. He felt that he was giving up the only certain means of getting away from the regiment he now thoroughly hated.

"Gee!" he exclaimed petulantly, stepping forward a pace. "It seems as if the whole bloomin' German army was determined that I should get mixed up in the war! First it's von Liebknecht and now it's you and Otto keeping after me, and I never did a thing to any of you!"

"No?" queried Fritz. "But you do not say what you would like to do or what you would do if you had the opportunity."

"All right; you win the argument!" said Jimmie in a hopeless tone.

"Then we go now to care for the horses and prepare for the trip to Verdun," decided Fritz, with a twist of the keen blade he held.

Entertaining visions of what might happen if Fritz became too careless in his attentions with the saber, Jimmie cast a last look over his shoulder at the rapidly approaching airship. He again took a hesitating step toward the German, as if to accompany him.

Fritz, believing that Jimmie was preparing to follow without further parley, began replacing his saber in its scabbard. For an instant his attention was concentrated on the task in hand.

That instant was enough for the alert boy. With a sudden leap forward he threw his weight into a low tackle and clasped his arms about the other's legs. Both came heavily to earth.

Jimmie, having the advantage, was first to rise. As he jumped to his feet he again turned to look for the oncoming plane.

The hum of the motors was plainly discernable. He thought he could even hear a sharp command given by one of the boys in charge.

Almost overhead he saw the great wings outspread and knew that he had been sighted and that his comrades were trying to afford him the opportunity of escape he so much desired.

One glance revealed the strange lad clinging to a perilous seat on the truss rod. With one hand the newcomer was balancing himself, while with the other he was shaking out into plain view the noose trailing at the end of a line hanging from the under side of the plane.

His actions clearly indicated that he wanted Jimmie to prepare to grasp the loop and be drawn up to the airship as they rose above the camp of Germans. Jimmie needed no second invitation.

Without paying the slightest heed to the efforts of Fritz to right himself from the undignified position into which Jimmie's onslaught had placed him, the lad dashed forward to a point from which he thought he could most advantageously grasp the trailing loop.

Nearer and nearer came the dangling line. The boy, under the extreme excitement of the moment, began to imagine the feel of the rope in his hands, and reviewed the motions he would have to make in order to seize the line and be drawn up to his comrades.

He gave a brief thought of thankfulness to the gymnasium training Ned Nestor had so consistently urged upon the members of his patrol, and flexed his biceps in anticipation of the strain they were to receive.

Ned seemed to be handling the Eagle with consummate skill. He had brought the machine to an altitude that was nicely calculated to afford Jimmie just the opportunity needed without trailing the line upon the ground, yet not having it out of the lad's reach.

So absorbed were all the lads that they had not observed the activity about the German camp caused by the approach of the aeroplane. They failed to see several marksmen running toward their position with rifles ready for instant use and with determination upon their faces.

For the moment the lads seemed to forget that they were approaching a camp of men who suspected them of being Russian spies and who would hesitate at nothing to prevent their carrying out their designs.

Nearer and nearer swept the Eagle with her strange purpose. At length Jimmie's hand was outstretched to grasp the loop of line Dave had so cunningly fashioned. He started on a run in the same direction the airship was going, for the purpose of lessening the shock of being picked up from a standstill by the airship that was still moving at a good speed. He felt the rope within his hand, and then he heard a shot.

Instantly realizing that their maneuver had been discovered, the lad knew that the soldiers would endeavor by every means within their power to frustrate the designs of himself and comrades. Yet he was determined to make the attempt at escape, desperate though it was.

He felt himself lifted from his feet, and knew that his grasp on the rope was all that was keeping him from being dashed to earth again.

Another rifle shot rang out, and the boy knew that the Germans were preparing to concentrate their fire upon himself and comrades.

This time he heard the crash of a bullet as it ripped its way through one of the wings of the Eagle.

In another instant the lad saw by a quick glance earthward that the Eagle was not rising rapidly enough to get away from the cluster of tents toward which it was heading. He knew that Ned was doing all possible to so manipulate the wings of the monster craft that the tents would be cleared, and hoped ardently that he might be able to do so.

As the Eagle began a sloping ascent that promised to accomplish the purpose of its pilot another rifle in the hands of a German soldier spoke its sharp command and another bullet sped toward the little party.

A clang of lead upon the metal under part of the fuselage told Jimmie, hanging in midair, that the last marksman had been more successful than his companions, and he hoped that no damage was done.

His surprise was indeed great to feel a great trembling and shaking of the rope he grasped. He glanced upward to determine the cause.

His astonishment at observing Dave slipping down the rope was so great that he nearly loosed his own grip.

Lower and lower came the other boy until he reached the knot of the loop he had tied for Jimmie's benefit. There he hung a moment. Jimmie looked toward the earth again and saw that they were nearly over the tents. Mentally deciding that they would clear the tops, the lad again glanced aloft to observe the strange boy.

It seemed that coincidentally with another shot the Eagle suddenly jumped miles high into the sky. Then he found himself bumping about with the strange lad in a world of canvas with several other people.

By a strange freak of fortune the last shot had severed the rope by which the two boys clung to the airship and had precipitated them straight onto the tent. There they floundered for a time.

"Ha!" Jimmie heard as he opened his eyes. "Another recruit!"