“There’s not a doubt about it,” he was assured by Tom, who had not allowed himself to worry about that in the least. “By the way, I saw the old sergeant gripping your hand as you came away. He took it in the right spirit, of course, when you told him why you had to beg off?”
“Oh, yes. And, Tom, he’s to be one of the party. Think of his going up this afternoon, just as if it was all in the day’s work; when to-night he’ll have to be in his plane for many hours, and cruise far up the Rhine and back.”
“He’s a hardened old vet!” laughed Tom. “Was he wishing you good luck, Jack?”
“Sure thing. He also told me to say this to you: ‘Success on this trip will be the making of you as a warplane pilot.’ And I guess it will put us in line for promotion besides. Before long we may take our place with the rest of the boys, and frequently meet a Boche in combat away up near the clouds.”
Nothing was said at the supper-table about the bombing trip, so Jack reasoned that it had not been scattered broadcast. But Tom decided that others besides their captain might be told, as the secret would certainly not be passed on. One and all were glad that a chance had finally come for Jack and Tom to do “something worth while,” knowing how they had been lamenting the enforced idleness.
Of course a bombing raid was “tame stuff” to those active members of the fighting escadrille. Aboard one of those heavy and cumbersome big machines, that made such slow progress compared with the speedy Nieuports, going a couple of hundred miles in a night, dumping the load of explosives on some object far below, and then returning to their base, was a mere matter of form. The danger connected with such an expedition could not for a moment be compared with what the fighting pilots risked every day they went up to perform their hazardous duties.
Nevertheless they did not by any means, scorn those who carried out the raiding expeditions. Their work was just as important, if not so exciting, as any other, since every munition dump, or factory, which they could successfully fire, meant hundreds of French lives saved in the end.
As there was to be no rest for them later in the night the chums retired to their room very early and lay down to snatch a few hours sleep. Tom had an alarm clock and set it so as to be sure they would awake on time.
It turned out that Tom was even better than the clock; or else that he was afraid to risk it, for he had shaken his companion, and told him to get up, before the alarm went off. Tom stifled the clock under the bed clothes, so as to prevent its noise from arousing the rest of the unit, by this time enjoying their initial sleep of the night.
When they got outside, however, they found a number of their fellows bent on riding over to the camp hangars, to see them fairly on their way. They made the short trip by means of a big car, one of many that had been commandeered for the service of the Americans and a few other aviators near by.