“Yes, and we count ourselves pretty lucky not to have dropped inside the German lines in the bargain,” Frank told him. “You see, sir, we are three American boys. My name is Frank Chester, this is Billy Barnes, a newspaper reporter, and Pudge Perkins is the third member of our party. As for this gentleman, you must surely have heard of the well-known French aviator, M. Armand Le Grande.”
“And I am Captain Charles Marsden, of the Sussex Regiment,” replied the officer, cordially shaking hands. “Most assuredly, I have often heard of M. Le Grande, and once saw him play a daring trick on three German Taube pilots. But what manner of strange craft was it passed over our lines, and where have you come from?”
“First of all,” said Frank, “I had better explain what brought the three of us over here in France when we had better be safe at home in America. The father of Pudge here is an aviator and an inventor. He has constructed a wonderful seaplane designed to save human life in case of accidents at sea. A sample was sent over to the French Government at their request before the war broke out, but had never been taken from the cases. So, on their invitation, we came across to assemble the parts, and prove the great value of the new type of machine.”
“All this is very interesting to me, my young friend,” ventured the officer; “so please go on with your explanations.”
“We have a contract whereby the French Government can acquire this great seaplane for cash, and pay a royalty for every one up to fifty that they construct themselves from the sample. That is as far as our neutrality will allow us to go. And M. Le Grande was selected to accompany us on a trial flight to learn in what way our Sea Eagle was superior to the ordinary planes in common use.”
“Oh! then you have just been making that flight,” remarked the officer, “and by mistake managed to cross the lines, so that you came near falling into the hands of the enemy?”
Frank smiled, and even Pudge gave a disdainful snort.
“Well, although you have not heard the news yet, Captain Marsden, this has been a glorious day for your countrymen,” Frank told him. “This morning some thirty-four seaplanes started up the coast, nearly every one of them manned by British aviators, and made a most desperate raid on the submarine bases around Zeebrugge, as well as bombarded railway stations, destroyed oil tanks, and even exploded a magazine, giving the enemy a grand scare, and doing much damage.”
How the officer’s rosy face broadened in a smile when he heard that! The way in which the Kaiser had spoken of them in the beginning of the war as “that contemptible little British army,” would never be forgotten or forgiven; and everyone who wore the king’s khaki was resolved in his mind to do all in his power to make the Emperor change his opinion before quitting time.
“But how do you know about this grand event?” he demanded.