"That I don't doubt," replied Blake. "It isn't that I don't want to take you. It's the official regulations coupled with a desire on my part not to run you into danger. You were turned back from the Front once before, remember."
"Hardly," replied Dick. "We were all right out there. It was coming home that did us in as far as the Army was concerned. The rotten part about the whole business is that the authorities insist upon a cast iron rule concerning a fellow's age. The number of years that a fellow has lived surely ought to be no criterion. A fellow might be absolutely fit for active service at sixteen or seventeen; another a physical wreck at thirty. It's jolly hard lines."
"A youngster of sixteen or seventeen might think he's fit," remarked Blake. "His heart is in his work and all that sort of thing, but his constitution is not properly developed. He crumples up under the strain, and additional and preventable work is thrown upon the medical authorities. That's the Army view of the case, I believe, and it's a sound view to take."
"Yet we maintain that each individual case should be tried on its merits," declared Athol. "To put the question bluntly: have you any objection to our going?"
"None whatever," replied the inventor.
"Then let us make an application. If you back us up there'll be no difficulty. You have the whip hand over this battleplane business."
"I'll see," replied Blake, loth to commit himself. Secretly he was pleased at the lads' determination and patriotism. Already he knew that they were capable. Their previous record at the Front proved that they were physically fit; and they had been strongly recommended for commissions by the commanding officer of their regiment.
"All right," he continued. "Come with me."
Leaving a gang of men at work painting distinctive red, white and blue circles on various conspicuous parts of the battleplane, Blake set off to find Sir Henry. In the record time of less than half an hour, so strongly did he set forth the charms of his youthful assistants, Athol Hawke and Dick Tracey were gazetted second lieutenants in the finest corps of airmen in the world.
The next step was to undo the mischief Blake had practically been forced to do by giving a public display of the marvellous capabilities of the battleplane. Accordingly it was announced, with all semblance of a confidential secret, that the machine had developed serious defects, and had been rejected by the authorities. Experience proved that by giving out the news in this manner it would spread as quickly or even more rapidly than if it had been proclaimed from the house-tops. No doubt there were scores of German agents mingled with the throng on the Horse Guards Parade, and in spite of all precautions a fairly detailed description of the battleplane, and particulars of her destination, would speedily be transmitted to Berlin.