So Tom hastened to look Adolph Tuessig over, being as gentle as the need of time would permit. He was soon satisfied that the other’s injuries, while they might be exceedingly painful, were by no means mortal.
“You’re going to come out of this fairly well,” he told the man after completing his hasty but thorough examination. “There will be plenty of black and blue marks on your body, and your nose may never again be quite as shapely as it was, for I am sorry to tell you it is broken; but you’ve got lots to be thankful for. It might have been your neck, Adolph Tuessig.”
Jack called out just then to explain that he had managed to get the contents of the tank into a can that had been thrown out of the car at the time of the collision; and in which it could be readily transported to the airplane.
So they left the man, still grunting and groaning and looking very miserable. Tom concluded he need have no further occasion to harbor ill feeling against such a wretch, who had been so thoroughly repaid for all the mischief he had done in the Raymond family.
The air service boys soon had the gasolene aboard and were ready to start. Jack ran ahead to examine the character of the ground, and reported it excellent. Indeed, once the start had been given to the propellers, and Jack clambered aboard so that the pilot could let go, they trundled over the ground, and took to the air without any difficulty.
Both felt relieved now that they had a chance to fly once more. First of all it was their policy to mount to a high level, where they could hope to pass unnoticed over the numerous towns and villages that still lay in the route to the fighting front beyond the border.
Of course everything looked strange to them below. They could make out roads, and lines of rails over which laden trains were passing back and forth; but though Tom had a map of Western Germany with him he could not recognize a thing.
They were heading right, at any rate, and if allowed to proceed a certain distance would surely strike their objective, the line where the rival armies lay in their trenches.
Jack had also managed to stop the tiny leak in their tank before they arose, which would help them greatly in conserving their store of fuel. Neither of them knew how many miles they must fly before reaching a friendly zone. It might be fifty, and it might only be fifteen; but as long as a drop of gasolene remained in their tank they meant to push steadily on.
Fortune was again kind to them, for in time they realized that they were nearing the scene of warfare. The dense clouds of smoke in the distance told them this, in the first place, and later on they occasionally caught the dull concussion of the big guns that rocked the earth every time they were discharged.