"That was rather a nervy piece of business!" scornfully decided Jimmie. "I vote we use the brass knuckles on him!"
"It's too bad you didn't live a hundred years or so ago, Jimmie!" Ned laughed. "If we didn't know you so well, we'd be thinking all the time that you were a pirate and itching for a fight!"
"I'm not much of a scrapper," Jimmie stated, "but if we ever meet, you will have a chance to practice 'First Aid' on The Rat!"
Laughingly the boys received this statement, for they all knew well Jimmie's tendency to exaggerate, yet they all felt that he had ample grounds for feeling aggrieved at the one called "The Rat."
It was decided that their recent captor and his companion had departed for Paris and that, as nothing could be gained by returning to Havre at this time, their best course would be to go to Paris also.
No time was lost in preparing for flight. Waving a farewell to the friendly old man who had saved their lives, the boys seated themselves in the Grey Eagle and were soon under way.
Dusk was falling as they rose above the row of trees at the roadside, and as Jimmie turned on the switch controlling the lights illuminating the instruments under the pilot's cowl, he asked:
"Shall we put on the searchlight, Ned?"
"No, I don't think we'd better have that going," Ned decided. "Some of the country people hereabouts might become alarmed and send word to the War Department that a German invasion is taking place!"