Finally came the day when the two young Americans, having completed their schooling, were allowed to offer their services at the front to fill the sadly depleted ranks of the foreign Flying Corps. They left the training camps, and took train for the region where the German invading host was being held at bay by the allied armies.
“Now, I guess we’ll see service before long, Tom!” cried Jack eagerly.
“I shouldn’t wonder but what you are right,” was the reply.
CHAPTER XV
A LUCKY MEETING ON THE ROAD
“Listen, Tom! What do you suppose that far-away rumble can be? Surely not thunder at this season of the year!”
The air service boys were standing on the platform of a small station, where they had been set down by the train from Paris. The track went no further, having been destroyed in some of the furious fighting that had taken place in that region since the days when the Germans, defeated along the Marne, made their famous “withdrawal” to the banks of the Aisne, where they had previously prepared great trench works.
The boys were far from being alone. Soldiers wearing the uniforms of various French sections of the army clustered in knots here and there, or sat philosophically waiting to be taken care of. They, too, were on their way to the front, and seemed to have the utmost confidence that in due time orders would arrive for them to take up the march along the road, to relieve some of the fighters who had latterly been bearing the brunt of the fierce attacks of the enemy.
“No, I don’t believe such a thing as thunder could happen over here, at this time of year, when the spring hasn’t yet arrived. You’re right Jack! what you hear is something that, as the days go by, will become a very old story with both of us; only increasing a thousandfold in volume at times.”
“Yes, the growl of big guns on the fighting line!” exclaimed Jack in great excitement.
“Just that, and nothing less,” his comrade assured him. “But about the time you were listening I was trying to grasp what those two French sergeants over there were saying to each other. It was about the rumble in the air, and they seemed to be drinking it in eagerly; just as a hunting dog might the scent of the deer he was following.”