"That sounds good to me, Jack."
"Then let's get busy, and try to let her know we're here," continued Jack.
"First of all, we'll get under the open window where she must have been standing at the time we heard her crying. I think I saw a movement up there while the two men were conversing on the porch. Perhaps Bessie was listening to what they said."
Tom's words gave his chum a new thought.
"Oh, it would certainly be just like Bessie to do it! She seemed to be full of clever ideas."
Tom, being mystified by such words, he naturally sought further information.
"What would she do?" he demanded.
"Send me that mysterious message by the little hot-air balloon," Jack announced with a vein of pride in his voice, feeling delighted over having solved the puzzle that had baffled him for so long.
"It hardly seems probable," Tom answered softly. "At the same time it isn't altogether impossible."
"How far are we from the French front, do you think, Tom?" pursued his comrade, determined to sift the whole thing out.