“Raikes, is any one going across this afternoon with dispatches?”
“Yes, sir,” replied the young officer. “Commander Jennings is leaving at three o’clock.”
“You might ask him to come and see me.”
Within ten minutes a young man in a flight-commander’s uniform entered.
“Ah, Jennings,” said the colonel, “here is a little affair which concerns the honor of the British army. My friend here, Sam Gates, has come over from Halvesham in Norfolk in order to give us valuable information. I have promised him that he shall get home to tea at five o’clock. Can you take a passenger?”
The young man threw back his head and laughed.
“Lord!” he exclaimed. “What an old sport! Yes, I expect I could just manage it. Where is the Godforsaken place?”
A large ordnance-map of Norfolk (which had been captured from a German officer) was produced, and the young man studied it closely.
At three o’clock precisely old Sam, finding himself something of a hero and quite glad to escape from the embarrassment which this position entailed, once more sped skywards in an “airyplane.”