OVER THE TRENCHES
A few moments later Jacques was in the driver's seat and Leon and Earl
had taken their places on board. Every boy was dressed in a heavy coat
and an aviator's hood, with protection for the ears and face; warm
gloves were on their hands, for it promised to be biting cold in the
high air that day.
The top rim of the sun was just appearing over the edge of the trees as
Jacques pressed the button which set the self-starter whirring. The
engine roared and the pilot listened intently for any sound of defect
to come to his well-trained ear. An aviator must know by the sound
just what is wrong with his motor; there is no chance to search for the
cause of the trouble when you are a mile or two above ground.
Apparently Jacques was satisfied for he throttled the motor down until
it merely purred. "All ready?" he demanded.
"Got your dispatches, have you?" asked Leon.
"Yes," said Jacques, feeling of his breast pocket.
"I guess we're off then," cried Leon eagerly. "Let 'er go."
The monoplane began to move forward slowly. The little knot of men
gathered around called good-bys as the great mechanical bird ran out
across the field. Faster and faster it went; finally Jacques pulled a
lever and gracefully and easily it rose from the ground. Up, up, up it
soared, swiftly and steadily.
"Say," almost shouted Earl, "this is wonderful. I've never been in an
aeroplane before, you know."
"Well you keep your eye out for other machines and for people shooting
at us from below," advised Leon. "That's your job and mine."
"It's such a wonderful sensation flying like this," cried Earl. "Just
look down below us there. The roads look like white ribbons and the
trees like bouquets. Don't the houses seem small?"
Earl was enchanted. Leon and Jacques too, although they were
experienced hands at this game, once more felt the thrill of soaring
swiftly through space. Jacques particularly was pleased to be in the
driver's seat of an aeroplane again; his face plainly showed his keen
enjoyment.
Higher and higher they mounted; below them the earth seemed miles away
and the buildings and fields appeared to be of toy size. It was cold,
however, bitterly cold, and all three of the boys were profoundly
thankful for their warm wraps.
"You know it feels as if we were standing still," exclaimed Earl.
"I know it," agreed his brother. "The higher you go the more it seems
that way too."
"Yes, sir," cried Earl, "if I didn't know better I should say that we
were absolutely stationary and that it was the earth below that moved."
"Isn't the machine steady?"
"Feels as steady as a rock. You know I haven't felt the least bit
nervous since we started."
"Why should you?" demanded Leon. "We're a good deal safer here than we
are in the trenches."
"I suppose that's true," mused Earl. "You wouldn't think so, though,
would you?"
"I don't know. The way the machines are perfected nowadays there is
practically no danger from accident and with a good aviator you are as
safe as any one can be in war. Of course plenty of machines are
destroyed and the pilots and observers killed, but I believe the
proportion is smaller than in any other branch of the service."
"Say," called Jacques from the pilot's seat.
"What is it?" demanded Leon.
"I've got a question to ask you. There are two ways of reaching
Flambeau and I want your advice as to which to take. One way we can go
around back of the firing line and be practically safe all the way."
"Go that way then," exclaimed Leon quickly.
"But," objected Jacques, "that course is much longer."
"Major Villier and General Petain both said that the dispatches should
be delivered as soon as possible, didn't they?"
"'At the earliest possible moment,' was the way they expressed it,"
said Jacques.
"Then," said Leon, "we ought to take the shortest route."
"It crosses the battle line twice," said Jacques. "You know the
trenches make a big loop below here and we will have to cut straight
across that loop."
"Never mind," exclaimed Leon. "If they said to deliver the dispatches
at the earliest possible moment it's for us to take the shortest
possible course in order to do that."
"I think so too," agreed Earl. "We'll have to run our chances, that's
all."
"There are the trenches below us now," cried Leon suddenly. "See them
up ahead there?"
"Sure enough," exclaimed Earl. "Don't they look funny from here? They
look just like a series of deep scars running in all directions."
"You can't see the first line trenches yet," said Leon. "You can
easily tell them for they'll run exactly parallel to one another and
the space in between them will be the only place where you see no
trenches. Behind both the French and German first lines there are any
number of other trenches running in all directions and all connected.
But in between the two front ones there is nothing; 'no-man's land'
they call it."
"'Dead-man's land' would be better I should think."
"See them firing," exclaimed Leon suddenly.
"At us?" queried Earl.
"No. You can see those puffs of smoke down below there though; those
are bursting shells."
"There are the first line trenches too," said Earl abruptly. "You can
tell them easily, can't you, just as you said."
"How high are we, Jacques?" inquired Leon.
The young aviator consulted his indicator. "Two thousand meters," he
replied.
"Let's see," said Leon, trying to figure it out in his head, "there are
a little over three feet in a meter and that would make two thousand
meters about six thousand feet or over. There are five thousand two
hundred and forty feet in a mile; that makes us a little over a mile
high."
"Can they hit us at this distance?" asked Earl.
"They can, but I hope they don't," said Leon grimly.
"Funny we haven't seen any other machines," remarked Earl.
"Well we're right over the front trenches now and I guess plenty of
people see us and are looking at us right this minute."
As he spoke a puff of white smoke suddenly appeared ahead of them but
some distance below.
"They're firing at us," exclaimed Jacques.
"Shall we drop a bomb on them?" cried Earl eagerly. "We want them to
know that we're alive, you know."
"Don't do it," cautioned Jacques. "It would probably be wasted here."
"There's another shot," cried Leon. "Behind us this time."
"Let's hope their aim continues as poor as that," said Jacques. "We
want to get those dispatches to Colonel Erhard at Flambeau before
anything happens to us."
"We'll be over hostile territory all the way, won't we?" asked Earl.
"We will," replied Jacques, "and we'll be fired at all the way too. If
they should send a couple of machines up after us we might have to run
for it."
"I don't know where we'd run to," said Leon grimly.
"Nor I," admitted Jacques. "Let's hope that we can out-distance any
machines that start to chase us."
"Do you think this machine is faster than the German ones?" asked Earl.
"Faster than most of them," replied Jacques. "Probably not as speedy
as those new _fokkers_ though; they go like the wind, but they are too
light and I doubt if one of them could do us a great deal of harm."
They passed over many towns and hamlets; the green fields of France lay
spread out beneath them like some soft green carpet. It all appeared
very beautiful and peaceful now that they were some miles back of the
firing line. An occasional puff of smoke around them, however, showed
that they still traversed hostile territory; at least it was land held
by the invader.
Once a German machine rose from its hangar far below and set out in
pursuit of the speeding monoplane; it was quickly out-distanced,
however, and soon abandoned the chase. Without any special incident
the three young friends progressed until far ahead of them they could
make out the faint outlines of the Vosges.
"There are the mountains," cried Jacques.
"Sure enough," exclaimed Earl. "Well we've had a pretty easy trip of
it, haven't we? It has been a regular pleasure jaunt."
"We're not there yet," warned Leon.