At the same time an unmasked figure on the cliff above began talking by American radiophone with three planes half a mile in the air above him. He spoke naturally, easily, into a transmitter to which no wires were attached.
He was still talking when Recklow arrived at his side from the ravine below, tore off his gas-mask, and put on a peculiar helmet. Then, taking the transmitter into his right hand: "Do you get them?" he demanded of his companion, an American lieutenant.
"No trouble, sir. No need to raise one's voice. They hear quite perfectly, and one hears them, sir."
Then Recklow spoke to the three airplanes circling like hawks in the sky overhead; and one by one the observers in each machine replied in English, their voices easily audible.
"I want Zell watched from the air," said Recklow. "The Boche have an underground tunnel beginning near Zell, continuing under Mount Terrible to the French frontier.
"I want the Zell end of the tunnel kept under observation.
"Send our planes in from Belfort, Toul, Nancy, and Verdun.
"And keep me informed whether railroad trains, camions, or cavalry come out. And whether indeed any living thing emerges from the end of the tunnel near Zell.
"Because we are gassing the tunnel from this ravine. And I think we've got the dirty vermin wholesale!"
At sundown a plane appeared overhead and talked to Recklow: