“Swell chance,” returned Dick. “We’ve taken all the fight out of those fellows. They haven’t a bit left. Have you heard about the way they surrendered their fleet? Some of the finest battleships in the world, and they gave them up like so many lambs. Think of an American navy giving up that way without one last desperate fight. But Heinie isn’t built that way.”
“How does it seem up there in the air to watch the American army marching toward the Rhine?” asked Tom.
“Bully,” replied Dick. “I always felt certain I’d see them going in that direction but I didn’t dare to hope it would be so soon. From up there I can see not only our boys but the Huns as well going back to explain how it happened that they were making tracks for Berlin instead of toward Paris, and I tell you the sight makes me feel mighty good.
“One funny thing I noticed yesterday,” he went on. “Our whole army had passed on, or I thought they had, when I saw a man marching along about three miles behind them. He was all alone, but he was marching as stiff and straight as though his captain was looking at him. Then every once in a while he would stop and go through the whole manual of arms. Then up would go his gun again and he’d march on.
“It struck me as strange and I watched him for a while. He went through that performance a half dozen times. I got out my glasses for a better look and saw that he was ragged and looked down at the heel. I had half a mind to go down and see what it all meant, but just then I got a signal from the flight commander and had to go forward. But it sure struck me as queer.”
“Some straggler that had been left behind and was trying to catch up with his regiment, I suppose,” suggested Billy.
“But that doesn’t explain why he went through the drill movements,” replied Dick.
Frank had been listening, carelessly at first but with growing interest. Now he leaned forward and asked earnestly:
“Did you see the man’s face, Dick?”
“No, I was almost directly above him and he didn’t look up.”