Part 9 (1/2)

All these things were exceedingly interesting to the three scouts.

They were patriotic boys, like all scouts. Though studying the arts of peace rather than those of cruel war, love of country was a cardinal virtue held up constantly before their eyes by Lieutenant Denmead. Should danger of any type menace the defenders of the flag, boys like these would be among the first to want to enlist. The Boy Scout movement was never intended to discourage a love of country.

And if war ever does come to the land we all love, thousands of those who rally to her defense will be found to have once been wearers of the khaki as Boy Scouts.

The camp of the Flying Corps was now seen ahead of them. A challenge from a sentry and the giving of the countersign in a whisper by the lieutenant, told the lads that they were actually in a military camp.

Of course this was not their first experience among genuine soldiers, though those whom they once before a.s.sisted in the yearly maneuvers as signal corps operators had properly belonged to the State militia.

These men were seasoned regulars, serving the Government in the capacity of aviators and members of the Flying Squadron.

Lieutenant Fosd.i.c.k loaned them a pair of gla.s.ses through which they could keep track of the distant aeroplane. They saw it perform several queer ”stunts,” as Bud called it, that caused them considerable astonishment.

”Why, say, it turned completely over that time, just as neat as you please!” Bud exclaimed, so interested that the others could not get the gla.s.ses away from him again. ”There she goes a second time, as slick as anything! I've done the like from a springboard when in swimming, but I never would have believed anybody'd have the nerve to loop the loop three thousand feet up in the air. Oh! what if it didn't come right-side up again! What a drop that would be!”

”Taking chances every time, and that is what our lives are made up of mostly in the Flying Corps,” the officer said grimly, with a shrug.

”Any day may see our end; but like the men who drop from balloons with a parachute, we get so accustomed to peril that it never bothers us.

Constant rubbing up against it makes a man callous, just as working with the hands hardens the palms.”

”They seem to be heading back now,” observed Ralph.

”Yes, my colleague has accomplished the object of his little flight, which was partly to practice that turn and partly to look for any signs of spies in the forest below. We're always thinking of interlopers, you see, though up to the time you gave me that information concerning the two men, I hadn't seen a trace of any watchers around. They must have kept pretty well under cover all the time.”

”And might have continued to do so, only that our coming bothered them,”

Ralph commented. ”They didn't know what to make of us. We seemed to be only boys, and yet we dressed like Uncle Sam's soldiers; and then there was Bud trying out his aeroplane model. That must have stirred them up some. Perhaps they thought, after all, that we might be the ones from whom they could steal an idea well worth while.”

”I wouldn't be surprised in the least,” said Lieutenant Fosd.i.c.k. ”And at any rate we're under heavy obligations to you boys for bringing this important information about the spies. I'll try to make your stay here interesting to you, in return.”

CHAPTER X

UP IN A WAR MONOPLANE

”We're certainly in great luck!” Hugh said to the other two scouts, as they stood and watched the ”bug in the sky” growing larger and larger, the monoplane being now headed for the camp.

”It nearly always happens that way, you remember,” said Bud, who had been through frequent campaigns with his leader and could look back to many experiences that come the way of but few Boy Scouts.

Bud was probably much more excited than either of the others. This was natural, since he had the ”flying bee” largely developed and was wild over everything that had to do with aviation.

To him, this accidental meeting with the bold members of Uncle Sam's Flying Squadron was the happiest event of his whole life. If he had been granted one wish, it would have covered just this same ground.

Consequently his eyes fairly devoured the approaching war monoplane, as it swept down from dizzy heights, and prepared to land in the open field. He watched how skilfully the air pilot handled the levers, and how gracefully the whole affair glided along on the bicycle wheels attached under its body, when once the ground was touched.

The scouts were soon being introduced to Lieutenant Green by the officer whose acquaintance they had already made. The a.s.sociate of Fosd.i.c.k proved to be an older man, but the boys believed that after all their first friend must be the controlling influence of the team.

They afterwards learned that Lieutenant Fosd.i.c.k was really without a peer among army aviators; and that even abroad, where so much attention is given to this subject, in France, Germany and England, he was said to have no superior in his line.

As both officers expressed considerable interest in the clumsy model of a monoplane which Bud had made, he readily consented to fly it and to show just how his stability device worked.

This he set about doing, while the army men stood close together and observed all his movements, now and then exchanging low words.

Of course both of them recognized the fact that poor Bud had really hit upon the exact idea that was already being used by the Wright firm. Bud may never have read any description of this ”fool-proof”