Once enveloped in the cloud, there was little chance of their running into the enemy except through sheer accident. To avoid this Tom quickly altered his course, suiting his action to the meager knowledge he possessed of the dimensions of the cloud-belt into which he had so recklessly plunged.
It would be much like searching a haystack for a lost needle, he believed, and that the three Germans could only scatter, and grope their way along. He hoped they might chance to collide in the cloud pack, and have all possible trouble, even to spattering one another with a hail of missiles from their mounted guns.
This was all very well, but Tom did not like the situation at all. He could not tell which way he was heading, since all view was cut off, and the loss of the compass badly felt.
Consequently they might be actually going back into the heart of the hostile country for all they knew, with a pretty good chance of being made prisoners of war.
More time passed. Unable to stand it any longer Tom decided to drop down to a lower level, and try to get free from that stifling enveloping cloud that wrapped them in its dense folds. True, other perils might await them there, but it seemed the best move.
Both young aviators breathed easier when they finally left the cloud above them, and were once more able to see something besides that opaque mass around them. Far below they could catch faint glimpses of lights, as though they were passing over some town, or perhaps a railroad center where troops and supplies were being loaded for the fighting front.
But where were they? Tom confessed to himself that he could not tell. He again got the sinking moon on his right, so that he felt positive they must be headed in a direction generally correct. Nevertheless, since he could not have told the Mosel River from any other, even if seen by daylight, there was a strong probability that although they were lucky, and finally reached the French lines, they might land fifty miles away from the aviation hangars of the Lafayette Escadrille.
Not that such a thing would give them much cause for anxiety, since news of their safe arrival would be flashed to their headquarters, to relieve the tension that was sure to result from their absence from the squadron. And later on they could ascend again, and make the home port easily enough.
It was while Tom was telling himself all this that he felt a movement on the part of his chum. This he recognized as the signal, and knew that Jack had something of importance to say, and wished him to ease up the pounding motor so he might be heard.
“Something else gone wrong, Tom!” called Jack.